


Voltron Lives

by EmrysTheMerlin



Series: Voltron Lives [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Dads of Marmora (Voltron), F/M, Fem Keith, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Raised by the Blades
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 00:12:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 33,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15303174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmrysTheMerlin/pseuds/EmrysTheMerlin
Summary: Four young humans are thrown into an epic space war alongside two ancient Alteans and an unexpected Half Breed ally. But all may not be as it appears with their new Half Galra friend, she's keeping secrets from them. Will this stop them from forming Voltron or will her past make it easier for them to find allies among the stars?





	1. Resistance

**Author's Note:**

> So this is another transfer from my fanfiction account but I'm editing this one a bit before posting it. This starts with male pronouns for Pidge until one of the characters figures out she's a girl. So I hope you enjoy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Red Paladin makes herself known.

The four Paladins stared at each other as the transmission was cut off abruptly. One of the Galra officers had been shouting something about sabotage before Sendek could finish his threats. Lance turned to Pidge. 

“Pidge can you get us an idea of what’s going on, on that ship? You’re the hacker after all.” Pidge shrugged. 

“A hacker I might be but I don’t know anything about the tech!” Coran raced over to a nearby panel and soon there was an image on the screen again. Two large figures were dragging a smaller purple figure into the bridge of the battleship. She, for the figure was clearly female, was handcuffed and wearing a different suit than the other Galra she was surrounded by. Shiro gasped, he recognized her. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Bright gold eyes smiled gently as she passed a large ration of food through the bars wrapped in a few extra blankets. Shiro took them carefully. She was the only one there right now but you couldn’t be too careful. She laid a clawed hand on his false one gently. 

“I’m sorry I can’t do more. We’re working on getting you all out. It will take some time.” He remembered her kindness and her interference against Zarkon. He still didn’t remember how he’d escaped, made it back to Earth to be rescued by Hunk, Lance, and Pidge the former of whom had led them to the cave where they had found the blue lion. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He winced as Sendek struck her across the face drawing blood from her nose and lip.

“So, this is the traitorous spawn responsible for our multiple issues.” The female Galra spat blood onto the floor at Sendek’s feet.

“Nearly two months on your ship and you never noticed.” Sendek growled and kicked her in the ribs sending her sprawling, her hands were still trapped behind her as she coughed and curled in on herself in an attempt to protect her ribs. The guards dragged her back to her knees. She spat blood again but this time into Sendek’s good eye. As he scrambled to scrub the blob of spit and blood from his eye she made her move. 

She leapt curling in on herself and pulling her hands under her feet, in her hand was a knife none of them had noticed. As they watched it morphed into a sword which she used to cut down the guards and slice into Sendek’s chest. She slipped between Sendek’s legs taking a swipe at one of them as she went before disappearing into a loose ventilation grate. Sendek roared in anger and pain and Coran cut off the feed. Allura stared. Shiro spoke.

“We need to get the red lion now. I have a feeling that ship won’t be in the air much longer if she has anything to say about it.” Allura turned to Shiro.

“You know her?” Shiro nodded.

“She works for the resistance. She and a few others took out the carrier I had been on, I only heard about it second hand but if the rumors are accurate then that ship won’t be in the sky much longer.” Allura nodded her hands folded. 

“Then we need to hurry and retrieve the red lion.” Lance piped up voicing their collective concerns.

“How are we getting the red lion out? We don’t have anyone to pilot it.” Coran nodded at the blue paladin and spoke.

“We had a saying on Altea, ‘The universe knows what she’s doing.’” Allura nodded though she looked a bit more skeptical than Coran did. Shiro turned to the others.

“Alright, Hunk, Lance you play decoy. They know we have the yellow and blue lions they don’t know we have the green one too.” They nodded and ran off.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kathy ‘Kat’ Kogane’s day was not going to plan. Everything had been going great until their course change had been announced. That threw everything off. The plan had been to place charges over the voyage to the station and go AWOL at the station, blowing the ship as it left. She only had half the charges set, Kolivan was gonna be pissed. The other charges were hidden but they wouldn’t do the damage she needed them to do from where they were. She already had the prisoners on her side, that was the first thing she always did, it was easier to get them to cooperate if they trusted her. Kolivan had never approved of this strategy but she’d never been the best at following orders. She slashed through another small contingent of guards. She slid to a stop in front of doors to the cells, expertly popping them open. The prisoners started slightly but relaxed at the sight of her. 

“Change in plans. We’re moving now! You remember the way to the escape pods?” The elected leader nodded.

“Good. I have charges set in the ion cannon and some in engineering but not enough to permanently cripple the ship. When you get clear head for the palace on the planet, they should protect you.” Kathy whirled at the sound of hurried footsteps. Her hands were still cuffed together which was definitely a disadvantage in a fight. But the figures that came around the corner were not the ones she’d expected, instead of guards two small pale figures came barreling into the hall both dressed in unfamiliar armor, one white with black accents the other white with green. Kathy lowered her sword slightly, she recognized the one in black. 

“Thought we got you out of this mess.” Shiro smiled and faltered as the leader of the prisoners whispered, called him the champion. 

“I’m never one to stay out of trouble.” She dove between them slashing down the three guards, who had just rounded the corner, without mercy.

“I’d be grateful if you got them to the pods. They know the way but none of them are armed. I need to drop a few more charges.” The one in green shook his head.

“You can’t! We need to find something one this ship!” Yellow gold eyes focused on Pidge and he could swear that he could make out a slightly different colored iris and pupil, all in shades of gold. A shiver ran up his spine.

“Is it more important than taking down one of Zarkon’s commanders?” Before Pidge could answer laser blasts came from the end of the hallway. The still handcuffed female Galra shoved them out of the way and cried out in pain as she was struck in the side by one of the blasts. The prisoners hesitated and she snarled, long canine teeth glinting in the low light of the hallway. She lunged into the fray cutting down guard after guard until there were none left. There was a slash across her cheek and she was panting and there was a wild gleam in her eyes. Then the doors slid open between them setting loose a new platoon. 

“Get the prisoners to safety Shiro!” The female Galra shouted diving back into the fray. Shiro nodded grabbing Pidge’s hand and racing off after the retreating prisoners. Pidge protested slightly but the female Galra had already managed to close the doors behind them, and even though he could just have Rover reopen them he didn’t really know how to fight these aliens. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kathy panted. She’d escaped the platoon and retrieved her small bag of personal items, but the charges were still hidden at her workstation on engineering and she was in an area of the ship she’d never been too before. It had always been too heavily guarded, but that didn’t matter anymore, her cover was already blown. She swore as she reached a hanger. A dead end. It looked disused which didn’t make sense. Then a red glow caught her eye. She turned and froze. A giant red mechanical lion stared down at her from the corner of the room surrounded by a red particle barrier. It almost seemed to be calling out to her in her mind. She took a step forwards and went flying into the wall as another shot caught her in her side. She coughed up blood as she dove behind a console and slipped her knife back into her sheath with some difficulty. She wasn’t going to last much longer, several of her ribs were already cracked from the combination of Sendek’s blow and the hits she’d taken. Her armor could only absorb so much. She had kept ahold of her bag though and slipped the primary detonator out of the side pocket. Praying that the prisoners had gotten out safely she pressed the button. The ship shook and tilted. She let the now useless detonator slip from between her hands which were still cuffed together. As the guards in the room slipped and slid as the ship tilted Kathy got an idea, it was a very bad, very dangerous idea, especially with her hands still cuffed but it was that or dying and she didn’t plan on dying today. Of course, nothing else had gone to plan so why not take risks. Not like if she failed Kolivan could yell at her. She pulled the secondary detonator out of her pack and strapped the pack around her waist. She tapped the small button on the side of the neck of her armor, her black and purple helmet sprang into place. Her suit could keep her alive in the vacuum of space for a few minutes, but only a few minutes, especially with the damage it had already sustained.

She leapt over the console and slammed her hands into the button that opened the hanger doors. The platoon made no sound as they were sucked out into the void. She held onto the control panel with one hand and pressed the button on the secondary detonator. The ship shook again and lights flickered and went out. The ship tilted down dramatically, unfortunately this dislodged a piece of debris from the celling that came crashing into Kathy’s arm. She felt the bone snap as she was forced to let go. She hurtled out into the void with a scream.

Kathy panted trying not to scream as she spun in the void. She only had a few seconds of air left, at least she could watch Sendek’s ship go down. Her suit began to beep as her air levels grew dangerously low. She could hear nothing in the void of space, not the lasers the blue and yellow lions where shooting at the damaged ship, not the explosions still rocking Sendek’s ship. Not the ion cannon breaking off into the void though she took pleasure in watching it crumble. No, the only thing she heard was her own scared panting breaths that were becoming shorter and shorter as she hung in space. She felt something at the back of her mind as her vision started to blur. A presence so familiar and yet so foreign. She turned, it was remarkable how much dying from lack of oxygen in space felt like drowning. She screamed as the giant red lion from earlier lunged its mouth open to swallow her whole.


	2. Fight and Reflection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lions take down a battle cruiser, some injuries are obtained.

She gasped for air as the chair she’d landed in slid forward in the cockpit that was the lions head. Taking a deep calming breath around the broken ribs was hard but somehow she managed it. She felt bad coughing up blood in the lion but she couldn’t help it. 

“Good kitty.” She managed to rasp out as she took hold of one of the controls in her hand, that jostled her broken arm and she hissed in pain. It was gonna be impossible to steer this thing with one hand. She focused and felt herself shift. The purple of her skin retreated to her large catlike ears, hands and feet and a slight purple dusting on her cheeks, at the same time she felt her armor shift and change to accommodate her tail. The new appendage wrapped around the other control and she sped off to help bring down Sendek’s ship.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“Kitty Rose is up!” Pidge shouted from the cockpit of the green lion as the red lion sped past her firing a laser blast from its mouth. His com screen came to life Lance glancing up from his control panels. 

“Any idea who’s in it though?” An image of Allura still on the bridge of the castle slid into place next to Lance’s. 

“Whoever they are they are clearly on our side. We need to bring down that ship while it’s damaged. We may not get another chance!” Another voice sounded and a new face in a new lion appeared on their screens. She was pretty. Her hair was pitch black and fell in a curly mass around her face and down to just below her shoulders. Her eyes were pure shining gold. Her ears were large and catlike covered in familiar purple fur, her pale face was covered in what looked like tiny purple freckles. She was wearing the same suit as the female Galra from before and she was handcuffed in the same way. She had what appeared to be a tail wrapped around one of her controls. There was blood slowly dripping from the corner of her mouth, from her nose, and from a cut on her cheek. One of her arms was clearly broken and she looked like she was in pain but she spoke clearly enough. 

“She’s right. If we don’t act now they’ll have drones out to fix the ship within the hour. They won’t be able to rebuild the ion cannon but the ship can still do a lot of damage.” Lance’s eyebrows shot up. 

“Who the quiznak are you?” One of the girl’s eyebrows shot up. 

“Name’s Kathy. But that’s not important right now! On your left yellow!” She somehow managed to steer the red lion between a group of fighters and the yellow lion blasting them out of the sky. 

“Thanks Kat. My name’s Hunk. You look hurt, are you ok?” Hunk’s image appeared next to the others. Kat shook her head and coughed, blood seeped from between her lips and spilled down onto her suit. 

“Not particularly Hunk. Pretty sure I broke at least two ribs and am slightly oxygen deprived. But we need to take down this ship now before they have a chance to go for reinforcements.” Shiro nodded. 

“Kat’s right. We need to take it down. We don’t have time for Voltron. You know the ship better than we do call out where we need to take them down.” Kat’s ear twitched at the mention of Voltron but she just kept flying. They did just that and in less than ten minutes the ship was breaking apart and crashing to the ground. There were cheers from all but one lion. The pilot of the red lion coughed loudly and wetly. There was the sound of liquid splattering onto her controls. Shiro stiffened.

“Kat, are you alright?” There was another round of coughing then a tired scratchy voice came over the lion’s coms. 

“I would not use the word alright, no. I’ll probably survive if I get medical attention.” She coughed again. Allura piped up.

“Paladins please come back to the castle! Coran will prepare the medical bay.” They followed the blue lion into the castles hanger and when the red lion set down it knelt and opened its mouth. It took a few minutes for Kat to come down from the cockpit. There was a thin trail of blood following her as she went leaning heavily on the side of the lions mouth. When she was finally out of the lion she patted it on its large metal nose. 

“Good kitty.” She wobbled and fell forward. Lance was the quickest and caught her gently around the waist. She coughed and blood splattered onto the floor at Lance’s feet. Coran and Allura ran in a floating stretcher keeping pace with them. Shiro helped Lance load her up onto the stretcher. She grabbed Coran’s shoulder and whispered something into his ear before he took off with the stretcher to the medical bay. Shiro watched them go a worried look on his face. He turned to Allura. 

“Is she going to be alright?” Allura nodded.

“Coran is a skilled physician. He will take good care of her, and the healing pods in the castle are the best planet Altea could produce.” Shiro nodded. Pidge stepped forwards. 

“So what happens now?” The lions answered Pidge’s question for Allura as they all stood up and roared. The large door that had until now been closed slowly slid open revealing a larger black lion. Its eyes glowed yellow and it roared before leaning down and letting Shiro touch his nose in the same affectionate way Kat had for the red lion. He felt a presence at the back of his mind, almost like a purring cat. Allura smiled and clapped her hands together. 

“The black lion has accepted you. As soon as she is healed you should be able to form Voltron!” The princess led them back to where they had first received their armor.

“These pods will repair and clean your armor.” She explained and Pidge turned to her. 

“The prisoners we helped to rescue?” Allura smiled at the green paladin. 

“They are in healing pods as well. They were all severely malnourished and most were injured or had old injuries that healed improperly. They will likely be in the pods for a few days since we didn’t have the proper settings prepared.” Pidge raised an eyebrow as he took of his helmet and set it in the pod. 

“Proper settings?” Allura nodded. 

“Healing pods aren’t infallible, it takes them time to recognize different species. Every species has a different setting that it adjusts to the first time they use a pod. These pods have, until now, only been used for Alteans. As soon as we can I would like to get a baseline setting for each of you.” Shiro nodded and the others agreed as well. Allura gave them the go ahead to explore the palace as they wouldn’t be able to even try and form Voltron without the red paladin. Shiro made his way to the medical wing while Hunk wandered off in search of the kitchen. Pidge was already in the medical wing sitting in front of the pods that held the prisoners. Across the room stood a set of five pods each of them had the same v along the top, each in a different color. Only the red one was occupied. Coran smiled at Shiro and nodded to where Lance stood in front of the pod that held their fellow paladin. The blue paladin smiled at Shiro.

“Heya Shiro. Coran was just explaining how the pods work.” Coran nodded twirling his mustache. 

“That’s right. These pods are actually pretty simple. Essentially it speeds up the body’s natural healing process. Without advancing anything else. It’s lucky she knew her proper setting though or she might have been in there for a week or more.” Shiro raised an eyebrow. 

“Why’s that?” Coran pulled up a screen and showed it to the paladins. It was in Altean so neither of them could actually read it though, a fact that Shiro gently reminded Coran of. He nodded. 

“Of course. Well, she’s not one species. Half of her is Galra, we weren’t wrong there. But the other half, I have no idea. It’s not a genetic structure I’ve seen before. But she must be one of a kind, if she were a common mix she would have assumed I knew her proper setting right away. I doubt she’s ever seen an Altean before either, though sadly that’s likely to be common these days.” Lance nodded. 

“So, she’s gonna be ok?” Coran nodded.

“She’s healing well. Her internal injuries weren’t nearly as bad as they could have been. Her lung wasn’t punctured like we feared. She had some internal bleeding but that’s healing now. She should be out in a few of your Earth hours.” Shiro nodded and patted Lance on the shoulder. 

“That’s good.” Shiro said and nodded at Coran and Lance before heading over to talk to Pidge. Lance stayed in front of the pod. It was actually kind of fascinating, knowing that the healing prosses was being accelerated in front of him, not to mention this was the first time he was seeing an alien that looked like an alien face to face. Sure, Allura and Coran both had pointy ears and the odd glowy blue and pink marks on their faces but she was different. Despite the obvious differences, the ears and tail namely, there was something so human about her face. He didn’t know why but he could see it. Maybe it was the fact that those bright yellow eyes were closed. Maybe it was the healing suit. He couldn’t tell but she looked almost human. He sighed. Maybe this was going to be more interesting than he’d bargained for. Then again, he’d had no idea what to expect when he’d entered the giant blue lion on Earth but it definitely wasn’t this. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Pidge was fidgety. He couldn’t stop tapping his foot. Even as he explored Rover’s systems, trying to familiarize himself as much as possible with the little Galra tech he had access to. Maybe Kathy would know more when she got out of the pod. The tech he was surrounded with was beyond anything anyone on Earth was working on. But he couldn’t get distracted by that, one of these aliens might know where Matt and their dad might be. Hell, if they didn’t maybe Kathy might. She seemed to be in the business of freeing people held captive by the Galra. He tapped his foot again.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hunk was cooking up a storm. It helped him get his mind off of everything that had happened in the last, it had to have been about twenty-four hours. Yesterday he’d been an engineering student at the Galaxy Garrison. Now here he was in deep space, so deep there were no stars or constellations he recognized. All he had to his name out here was what he’d had with him when he and Lance had snuck out of their dorm. He had his wallet, a set of headphones and his phone. It was nearly dead though and he didn’t have his charger. Neither did he have any reception. Of course not, not out here. He sighed as he placed the homemade pasta on what passed for a stove in space. It had been difficult to make but he’d managed it. Cooking had always calmed him down, ever since his mom had taught him how to when he was little. He was just glad that this planet had so many fresh ingredients and that there was a sensor in the kitchen that told him if anything was poisonous to humans, Alteans and whatever Kathy was. She didn’t look like the other Galra he’d seen, though he hadn’t seen many. He shook his head as he went back to trying to make dessert try and taste like chocolate. Space didn’t have chocolate, how lame was that. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Shiro had made his way to one of the observation decks of the Castle. It was a beautiful place, it really was. But it was just too big, too quiet. He would have thought that after everything he’d been through the quiet would have been a blessing. But he couldn’t even remember most of what he’d been through. That was part of what scared him most was that he couldn’t remember it. It made him shudder to think about what he might be missing. But he remembered her, Kathy. She had been posing as a guard when they’d met. She’d saved multiple lives by providing medicine, food and blankets that were otherwise unavailable to them. She’d had to sneak past her fellow guards to do it, endangering her life to try and help them. He sat down on one of the benches that surrounded the room and stared out at the setting sun, for some reason it turned the sky green unlike back home. He sighed wondering if he’d ever see Earth again.


	3. Meeting The Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Voltron officially meets for the first time.

Almost six hours later the team gathered around the healing pod. It should be opening any minute. Lance and Hunk were talking, Pidge was still fiddling with Rover, Allura and Coran were gathered around the controls. Lance sighed.

“So how long till you open this thing and we get to meet our teammate?” Coran turned to Lance. 

“Well the pod should be opening any moment.” As the Altean spoke the pod glowed and the blue outer shell dissolved. Kathy landed on her feet but wobbled slightly before falling forwards. Lance caught her again much like he’d caught Allura when they first arrived at the castle. Kathy shook her head, looking very much like a cat that had water in its ears. She blinked a few times looking around slightly confused. She shook her head again. She looked around blinking sluggishly then looked up at Lance, there was confusion on her face, though her eyes didn’t betray emotion her ears did. They were laid back in clear distress. Shiro stepped forwards. 

“How are you feeling Kathy?” She stood up a bit straighter, though she still looked a bit shaky. 

“Much better, thank you Shiro.” He smiled and held out a hand to shake. She took it but she wasn’t quite smiling. 

“Welcome to team Voltron. The name’s Lance, I pilot the blue lion.” Lance said smiling and holding out his hand. Kathy shook it. Hunk was next to step forwards. 

“I’m Hunk.” Kathy smiled slightly, revealing sharp canines. 

“Pilot of the yellow lion, right?” He nodded and grinned. 

“Yeah, thanks for the assist out there by the way, very much appreciated.” Kathy’s smile grew more genuine. Pidge stepped forwards. 

“My name’s Pidge. I pilot the green lion.” Kathy shook his hand as well. Then she turned to Shiro. 

“If the legends are right then that would make you the pilot of the black lion Shiro.” Shiro nodded. Allura stepped forwards, there was a suspicious glint in her eyes.

“What legends?” Kathy sighed. 

“It’s a long story.” Shiro looked around at the others. 

“Why don’t we all get something to eat and you can tell us all about it.” Allura nodded and led them to the dining room. Once Hunk had all the food set up they began to talk.

“I was raised in the resistance. It’s all I’ve ever known. When I was younger the older members who looked after me would tell me stories, about a warrior, a thousand feet tall. The thing that could defeat Zarkon forever. When I turned seven they told me it was just a legend.” Allura frowned deeply. 

“But the legend of Voltron gave you hope, why take that away?” Kat shrugged. 

“It was time to start training. Stop dwelling on something that couldn’t be real anymore. There’s no place for hope, only action. That’s what they used to tell me.” She took a sip of what Hunk had managed to make taste like coffee. Her nose wrinkled slightly but she didn’t comment of the bitterness. Lance held in a giggle, he couldn’t help it her ears were twitching, she looked like an overgrown purple cat. Pidge stepped forwards snagging the seat next to Kathy. 

“So you know a lot about Zarkon’s empire.” Kathy’s eyes hardened like she’d been accused of something. 

“I’ve been sabotaging him and his empire since I was twelve. I know quite a bit about it yes.” Pidge grinned. 

“Great! Maybe you’ll know what happens to prisoners taken by the Galra.” Kathy and Shiro both flinched. 

“I do, it’s never very pleasant. Why?” Pidge fidgeted. 

“My brother and father were on the mission with Shiro when he was taken, they went missing too.” Kathy frowned. 

“I’m not sure what happened to them, but maybe I can help you find them.” Pidge grinned and hugged Kathy. The Galra girl froze.

“Ummmm… what are you doing?” The others frowned as Pidge leaned back without letting go.

“I’m hugging you? Do you not want me to?” Kathy frowned. 

“No one’s ever done that before.” Lance frowned deeply as Hunk made a noise of distress in the back of his throat. Shiro even looked a bit shocked. Pidged squeezed a bit harder and Kathy awkwardly patted him on the head. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Meanwhile lightyears away someone tapped on a dark metal door. The figure inside the room continued to type for a moment before he spoke to the door. 

“Enter.” The door opened and a tall muscular figure who nearly filled the doorway made his way into the room. He was silent until its occupant turned to face him. Yellow met yellow as their eyes met. The taller one took a deep breath.

“Kathy’s communicator signal has disappeared, her suit no longer registers any life signs and the ship she was on has been reported as destroyed. Lost all hands.” There was silence in the room for a moment. The original occupant let out a long low breath. 

“She has not made contact with anyone?” Antok shook his head his ears sagging. Kolvian stood.

“She knew the risks, they come with every mission. But Sendek was destroyed along with his ship?” Antok nodded again.

“Then she did not die in vain. She eliminated one of Zarkon’s Commanders and the plans to distribute the ion cannon to the rest of the fleet. Inform who you can.” Antok nodded and left the room. Only then did Kolvian allow a few tears to slip from his eyes. 

She had been the youngest of them. Raised on base, raised by him, Antok, Thace and Ulaz among others. A fighter through and through, the youngest to awaken a blade and pass the trials though not unscathed. Thace was on a deep cover mission, they couldn’t jeopardize his safety or his mission even for something like this. Antok would get the message to Ulaz. Kolvian frowned at a small holo image nearly hidden in the glow from his now forgotten reports. It was one of the only truly personal items he allowed himself. It showed himself and his sister, his sister was holding a small pink bundle. An arm was reaching out of the bundle, pink splotched with purple. The picture was taken not too long before his sister had gone on a mission she had never come back from. He wiped at his eyes, there was no time to mourn, they had a mission to complete. His niece’s death would not be in vain. He would ensure it.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

A few hours later Kathy was escorted to a room of her own. That was something she hadn’t really ever had. With the Blades sleep had been a necessity that was often taken in shifts, waking the next blade for their training or mission briefing and sleeping where they had slept. Coran, who was slightly less warry of her than Allura, had shown her to it. She was still wearing the healing pod suit. He handed her the bag she’d been wearing and her armor. At this he frowned.

“The suit was damaged beyond repair.” Kathy nodded taking them from the Altean, she was still having problems wrapping her head around that fact. Alteans still existed, who knew? She forced a smile and thanked him. Then she frowned. 

“Um what do I do with this?” She asked pulling at the fabric of the healing suit. Coran smiled. 

“There’s a laundry chute in your room, just toss it down there number four.” Kathy frowned. Coran smiled. 

“I have you ranked by height.” Kathy genuinely smiled at that.

“Thank you, Sir.” Coran frowned. 

“No Sir necessary number four, just Coran.” She nodded and stepped into the room. There was a panel on the inside that let her open, close and even lock the door as she wished. There were no decorations in the room, the walls a blank white. A small door lead off the main room to a wash room. That was something she was also used to sharing, communal wash rooms were a regular occurrence with the Blades and with the Empire. She set her small bag on the bed and unzipped it. She dug around for a moment before frowning and dumping the bag on her bed. Most of her belongings were still there but her communicator was missing. She checked her jacket pockets, not there either. Then she examined her bag and found the problem. There was a hole, just a nick but when she moved the bag like it would have moved when she was wearing it she found that the small tear, likely from a sentry’s sword, was just large enough for her communicator to fall out. She sat down hard on the bed. 

She had no way of contacting anyone, not safely. It was a rule that no one ever contacted the bases directly. It was a hazard, and the frequencies that other blades could be contacted at changed every two weeks or so. Kathy had four days before she would be completely unable to contact anyone she considered family. She sniffled swiping at her nose. She would not cry. She was a Blade of Marmora and she was stronger than this. This was one of the risks she took just leaving the base. She carefully packed her things back into her bag save for her jacket. For a long time she just sat looking at her hands.


	4. Morning Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathy goes out for a morning flight.

Kathy looked up at the sound of footsteps in the hall. Glancing back down she realized that the purple tone of her skin had begun to bleed through again. She focused and the purple receded again. She didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. It took focus to look more like them though. She did look like them though and that confused her. She’d never known her father but he had been the non Galra parent that made her the mostly shunned half breed that she was. The Blades hadn’t minded, she would run around the compounds in her middle shift form because it was more comfortable for her, she didn’t have to focus to keep the halfway form. But the one she was wearing now, purple only in her ears tail fingers and toes took focus. But she knew that the Altean Princess didn’t trust her, she could smell it. And Shiro had been a prisoner of the Galra Empire, there was no need for her to scare anyone. Pidge, Lance and Hunk seemed more at ease around her than the others. Coran was funny, that wasn’t something she encountered often. There was a tentative knock on the door. Kathy stood and made her way to the door and opened it. Shiro stood on the other side a small smile on his face and a bundle of cloth under his mechanical arm.

“Hi. I figured you didn’t really have anything to change into other than your armor.” Kathy nodded. 

“My armor was damaged, so not even that anymore.” Shiro nodded slightly and held out the bundle of cloth. It turned out to be a black t shirt and pants a belt with pouches sat on top of all of it. Shiro smiled slightly.

“Allura let me raid the clothes on the ship. I hope I guessed the size right.” Keith smiled slightly, her fangs glinting slightly. She took the clothes from him. 

“Thank you Shiro.” He smiled. 

“Least I could do. You saved lives, I remember that much.” Kathy frowned slightly.

“You don’t remember things?” Shiro nodded. 

“I don’t even remember how I escaped, anything you could share would be helpful.” Kathy shrugged. 

“I don’t really know much about you. You got moved off the freighter I was liberating before I could finish the plan. I don’t know where to, but I got a message a few weeks later that you had been freed. I don’t know more than that.” Shiro nodded. 

“Thank you anyway. I appreciate what you did back there, and I’m glad the Red Lion picked you.” Kathy sighed. 

“Thank you Sir.” Shiro shook his head. 

“Just call me Shiro, please.” Kathy frowned. 

“I hope you don’t take offence but you guys are weird.” Shiro smiled. 

“No offence taken. Truth be told this is all a bit weird for us too. I mean yesterday I was back on Earth for the first time in what feels like forever, now here I am, leading a team.” Kathy nodded. ‘Yesterday I was on a vitaly important sabotage mission and now my whole fam… organization probably thinks I’m dead.’ She didn’t say that. She couldn’t, she’d have to explain what she meant by organization, she couldn’t reveal anything about the Blades no matter how much something in the back of her head told her to trust these people, that she was now and forever connected to them. She felt like she knew where that was coming from too, the Red Lion. 

“I understand how you feel. And thank you. I appreciate it.” Shiro nodded and stepped back. 

“Get some sleep. We have to see about actually forming Voltron in the morning.” Kathy nodded and stepped back into her room letting the door slide closed. She set the clothes on her bed and began to change out of the healing pod suit. 

She awoke a few hours later and began to prowl, she was accustomed to not sleeping for more than a few hours at a time when she could. She’d been doing it practically all her life. Somehow she found her way down to the hangers and smiled slightly as the red lion knelt down to allow her access. No one had bothered to clean up the mess she’d caused by coughing up blood in the cockpit the day before, so she found a rag and began to do it herself listening to the lion purr at the back of her mind as she did. It took her a few hours to clean up the blood and all the dust in the cockpit and out into the muzzle of the lion. She heard someone moving around outside the lion as she was scrubbing at a stubborn stain in front of the pilots chair. She was about to get up and check when the screen right behind where the lions eyes would be cleared and showed her what was going on in the room beyond. Coran was pulling a panel off the wall and messing with some of the wiring just beyond it. He was muttering to himself. 

“Must make sure all the Lions can launch from here, wouldn’t want anything bad happening and not be able to respond.” Kathy frowned slightly, how old was the castle that he might be worried that it wouldn’t work properly. Then she saw something move on Coran’s shoulder and spotted a tiny thing she hadn’t seen before. It looked sort of like a cuter version of the rats that often infested more remote Blade bases and Kathy smiled. Coran was talking again. 

“I wish number four was awake, the red lion’s door is one of the two we haven’t tested yet.” Number four, that was her. Kathy stood and easily kept her balance as red moved and Coran jumped slightly. Kathy held in a laugh as he waved his arms around as she exited the lion. He smiled slightly and twirled his moustache. 

“Ah number four! I was just hoping you were awake.” Kathy nodded.

“I heard. Well Red showed me.” Coran smiled slightly then the Altean frowned.

“Couldn’t sleep?” He asked fixing the panel back into place. Kathy shook her head.

“Don’t sleep much. Force of habit.” Coran nodded. 

“How do you feel about a brisk morning flight? I need to test the red lion’s hanger and make sure everything is operational, and that includes the doors heading out of the castle.” Kathy shrugged. 

“Sure.” Coran grinned wide and grabbed something from his belt. He pushed a button and spoke into the device. 

“Allura, I’m sending Kathy out of the castle with the red lion to test the doors on the red lions hanger.” There was a pause before Allura’s voice came back over the device. 

“Are you certain that’s a good idea Coran?” Kathy rolled her eyes, she was used to people outside the Blades treating her with suspicion or outright contempt. Coran’s next words surprised her.

“Absolutely! A morning flight can do wonders to clear a troubled mind and I need to check out the hanger. She’ll be fine.” He smiled at Kathy’s slightly confused expression as a sigh sounded over Coran’s device. 

“Alright Coran.” Kathy nodded to him and he stepped in front of her as she made to get back in the lion. 

“Hold it number four. You aren’t properly outfitted.” Kathy frowned slightly but followed the eccentric Altean into a room just off the hangers. There were five pods holding five different sets of armor in different colors and a case in front of them that held what looked like five handles each in the colors of the lions just like the armors. He motioned to the red one. 

“So this set of armor is yours as the Red Paladin, as is the red Bayard. Each Bayard takes a unique form depending on the Paladin.” Kathy picked up the red handle, Bayard, and it morphed in her hand into a long sword that felt like it had been made to fit her hand, much like her blade felt. She smiled slightly and thanked Coran who left her alone to change into her armor. Soon she was reentering the red lion and asking if she would open the doors so they could take a flight. The lion obliged and soon Kathy was flying through the sky around the castle. It was good to be in the air again. She hadn’t had a chance to actually pilot anything in a good long while as she’d been stuck posing as an engineer for the past six months to get onto Sendak’s ship. She watched as the sky slowly began to brighten. Something on the ground caught her eye and she frowned. Something down there was moving.


	5. First Try

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team tries to form Voltron, Allura gets a bit angry.

Kathy pulled Red back into the hanger just as the alarms began to blare. She tensed as Allura’s voice sounded over the intercom. She leapt out of her lion and took off for the control room and a break neck run. She skidded into the room at the same time Shiro arrived also in full armor. Pidge was third and Hunk forth. Pidge was still in his clothes from the previous day and Hunk was in a large yellow robe and he yawned as he tried to ask what was going on. Allura reached over and shut off the alarm. Kathy rubbed her ears slightly, the alarm was much louder than the one at any of the Blade bases. Allura sighed. 

“That was horrible timing, Pidge, Hunk where are your Bayards? And where is Lance?” The door behind them slid open and Lance entered the room in a blue robe and slippers that looked like his lion. Kathy frowned, where had he even gotten those? He smelled different too, it made her nose twitch. She’d always had a sharp nose, Kolvian used to say that her mother had had the same sense of smell she did, sharp even for a Galra. Lance smelled a bit like Allura actually, it made Kathy frown a bit deeper. Allura glared at Lance. 

“We needed to test the alarms and decided to test you paladins as well, guess which one failed.” Lance flinched slightly and Hunk piped up, as he spoke about how the human paladins had gotten to the castle Kathy stepped over to Coran. 

“I saw something, on my flight this morning. Something moving out there. Is Aris an inhabited planet?” Coran turned to one of his control panels and began to type. 

“It looks like our data logs for this planet are slightly damaged number four, I’ll work on fixing that soon. What I can make out says there shouldn’t be intelligent life on Aris. Probably an animal of some kind. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” Kathy nodded but she knew she wouldn’t be able to relax until she knew what was out there. Shiro piped up and raised his hands between Pidge and Lance who looked about ready to come to blows. 

“Enough Cadets. Allura is right we need to be prepared for an attack at all times. And we need to figure out how to form Voltron as soon as possible. Let’s get down to our lions and try this out.” They all nodded and headed to the doors marked with their colored V’s on the bridge. Coran turned to Allura as the doors opened and each Paladin stepped inside. 

“We should work on getting the sensors back online as soon as possible Princess. Kathy says she saw something while out on her flight this morning. She wasn’t sure what though.” Allura barely held in a scoff. 

“We need to work on the castle defenses first, the scanners aren’t a priority right now Coran.” Coran frowned but nodded slightly before stepping aside and beginning to work on his panel. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“Does someone want to go get him?” Pidge asked after waiting for about ten minutes for Hunk to appear. Soon though the door opened again and the yellow lion appeared. 

“Sorry, had some problems with my chute.” There was a rather pregnant pause. Lance was the first to speak up. 

“So how do we form Voltron. Is it like a giant cat? Does anyone actually know what we’re doing?” There was a purr in the back of Kathy’s mind and suddenly images began to flash in front of her eyes and if the gasps over the helmet’s com unit was any tell the others were seeing this too. The five lions flying up into a blue sky each trailing a bright light the color of each lion save the black lion which trailed purple light. There was a deafening roar and the lions in the images shifted and changed into a warrior, larger than anything Kathy had ever seen, wielding a sword in its red right hand and a shield on its green left arm. Then she was back sitting in the cockpit of the red lion panting. The coms were silent for a moment before Lance piped up.

“Did you guys all just see that?” Hunk practically squealed in excitement. 

“Voltron is a robot! A giant, awesome robot!” Pidge giggled and even Shiro seemed to smile as he spoke.

“We all saw that. Now we just have to figure out how to do it.” Kathy nodded she was a bit out of breath.

“Yeah.” She managed. Shiro sighed a smile still in his voice. 

“Alright let’s start with the basics, let’s just fly until we’re in perfect sync. Maybe it will just happen. Ready?” Kathy nodded, assuming the others did too. There was a moment of silence. 

“I’m nodding, is everyone else nodding.” It was Hunk. After a unanimous yes they began to fly. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Hours later they set down and sighed. It hadn’t worked. Kathy frowned at her console. After a moment of thought she spoke. 

“What if we try literally building Voltron like from the ground up?” There was a short pause before Shiro spoke up. 

“It’s worth a shot, let’s give it a try. Lance, Hunk, your lions are sturdiest, you’ll be the legs. Then Kathy and Pidge.” They stacked up the lions as Shiro had suggested and waited. And waited. 

“Nothing’s happening.” Pidge commented, there was a loud sigh of acknowledgement. They unstacked the lions and sat for another moment in silence trying to think. Then the coms on the lions activated. Allura smiled at them. 

“I had an idea Paladins. Perhaps you just need the proper motivation to form Voltron. I needed to test the castle defenses anyway so let’s get started.” With no more warning than that the castle began to fire at the lions. Kathy was the first to move diving out of the way of a blast that left a crater in the ground behind her. She swore, something she’d often heard Ulaz use when he’d been beaten at training. The others sprang into action and all five lions began to race around the desert area outside the castle. Allura was still smiling as she spoke again. 

“Let fear be your guide. Form Voltron!” Lance was shouting about this being crazy and it sounded like Hunk was starting to cry. Pidge had had enough of this and tried to fly back into the castle only to run smack into a particle barrier, swearing like a sailor. Lance was still shouting but the com to Allura had shut off. Kathy was used to tests like this. She wouldn’t have passed the Trials of Marmora without having to pass tests involving allies trying to kill her. It gave her a chance to get a feel for Reds controls at least but when it continued for two hours it was a stretch even by her standards. Finally the shooting stopped and the barrier dropped. They all tiredly maneuvered inside and landed the lions.


	6. Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance begins to flirt with the pretty alien on board, Kathy recalls some of her original training.

One by one the Paladins flopped onto separate portions of the large couch. Lance laid down on his portion of the couch legs thrown up on the back of the couch. Kathy took up as little space as she could, it was a habit of hers. If you were smaller people underestimated you. It had saved her life more than once. Shiro had stepped out to try and find something to drink. Allura and Coran walked into the room talking about the systems they were repairing. When Allura spotted the Paladins she grinned and clapped her hands together. 

“You did it! You formed Voltron!” Kathy shook her head. 

“No. The shield came down and the castle stopped firing, so we just flew in.” Allura frowned at Coran who grinned sheepishly. 

“Sorry Princess I had to shut down the defenses to test the fire suppressors on S level.” Allura shook her head and whirled on the Paladins her glare centered on Kathy.

“Whose idea was it to come in before you had formed Voltron!?” Her glare told all of them whose idea she thought it was. Shiro cleared his throat from the other entrance to the room. He had an arm full of what looked like large juice boxes. 

“Actually, that was my idea Princess. Even the lions get tired, and their pilots most certainly do when they have to endure friendly fire.” Allura frowned slightly. Coran cleared his throat and stepped forwards. 

“Perhaps you need more time to bond, the paladins of old fought hundreds of battles together. They were like a pack of Yelmors, joined at the ears. Maybe the training deck will help.” Shiro handed out the beverages he was carrying and nodded. 

“That’s actually a great idea. Come on team, let’s go find the training deck.” They all nodded and pulled themselves to their feet. Kathy paused by Coran. 

“Thank you for intervening but I don’t need it, I’ve heard worse accusations.” She followed Shiro out of the room telling him something similar as they went. Allura frowned, Coran cleared his throat. 

“Princess, you are being very hostile towards…” Allura cut him off. 

“Towards a Galra, the enemy.” Coran shook his head. 

“Towards the Red Paladin. You may not like it, but the Red Lion chose her for a reason.” Allura bristled. Coran laid a hand on her shoulder. 

“I understand what you’re feeling Allura.” Allura shook her head. 

“Coran that was my Father’s lion! That is his legacy being flown by one of them! We both know what happened last time a Galra flew one of the lions.” Coran shook his head. 

“I know Princess, but we cannot judge her on the actions of the Galra, she isn’t even a full breed Galra. And she’s been working for the resistance the whole time.” Allura’s frown deepened. 

“What if all of that is a lie, a way to get the lions?” Coran frowned. 

“You and I both know that once Red choses a Paladin there’s no going back. If she wanted to, she could fly out of the castle in the Red Lion right now and take it straight to Zarkon. I don’t believe she is that kind of person. I do believe that the other Paladins are growing fond of her, they are bonding Princess. They’ll form Voltron. I know they will.” Allura sighed. 

“I wish I could have as much faith in them as you do Coran.” Coran smiled twirling his moustache. 

“Oh, I believe you will in time.” With that he followed the Paladins out towards the training deck. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

The training deck wasn’t what Kathy had been expecting. It looked nearly empty for one thing. The decks she’d worked on before weren’t like this at all. Most of the Blades bases had a training deck. The only time it was ever empty was when there was a trial going on. At any other time there were at least three people training. The main base had a simulator on the training deck, it was always off to the side so it was out of the way but Kathy had spent most of her childhood in it, practicing until she could pilot around an exploding nebula without even a scratch on her ship. There was nothing like that here, here there were just empty blank white walls and bright blue iridescent lighting. Coran’s voice echoed around the room and Kat looked up to see him standing in what looked like a control room. 

“Alright Paladins, helmets on, move to the center of the room if you please.” They all obliged as Coran began to explain the point of the exercise. Protect your fellow Paladins. They formed a circle as their shields sprang into existence on their arms. Hunk was very confused so it didn’t really surprise when Pidge, who had his back to Hunk, went down first. Hunk was hit not two minutes later and the three remaining paladins shuffled closer together, each protecting the other two. It was going well until Lance opened his mouth. 

“Hey pretty lady, how are you doing back there?” The drones sped up. Kathy frowned.

“Are you talking to me?” Lance made an affirmative noise blocking another shot. Shiro rolled his eyes. He was wondering when Lance would try to hit on Kathy like he had on Allura. 

“Of course Kit Kat, you see any other pretty ladies in this room?” Lance turned his head to glance at her and in doing do was treated to watching the shot he’d failed to block strike her in the back sending her sprawling then falling through a newly opened hole in the floor. With no one to watch his back Lance felt something sting him in the back and then he fell through the floor too. Shiro soon followed and Coran sighed pressing a button that released the paladins from under the floor and sending the drones back to their places. Kathy rubbed her back, eyes averted from Lance. Lance frowned but before he could say anything Coran’s voice came back over the speakers. 

“Maybe the maze will help.” It did a bit. Pidge guided Hunk through and he only got shocked three times, then the smallest human guided Shiro and he only got shocked once. Kathy got paired up with Lance and it would have gone great if Lance could shut his mouth. He spent nearly the whole time shooting out shitty pick up lines, most of which Kathy didn’t understand. She got him out of the maze with only minimal shocks though and then it was Pidge’s turn. Hunk got him through with four shocks. Lance guided Kathy through the maze, still not keeping his flirting to a minimum. Every word out of his mouth that wasn’t a direction was some kind of flirtation. Kathy’s face was nearly stained purple by the time she made it out of the maze, she only got shocked twice. She took a deep calming breath and the purple receded again as Coran cheered. 

“Very good Paladins! I think you’re ready to start bonding for real, be down in a tick!” Lance glanced at Kat, she looked slightly confused as she pulled off her helmet. Her tail, he still couldn’t get over the fact that she had a tail, it was too cute, was flicking across the ground and her ears were twitching. He grinned at her and her cheeks tinted purple for a moment before Coran came into the room with five objects held in his arms. He handed them out and began to explain how they worked.

“Place these on you head, they will allow you access to each others minds. Perhaps to form Voltron in reality you have to picture it properly together. No confusion and no secrets.” That set a lump in Kathy’s throat and if Pigde’s expression was any indication he wasn’t very comfortable with it either. But at least Kathy had some training with this sort of thing. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“Sit down kittling.” Kathy obeyed sitting her legs crossed in front of Ulaz. He smiled. 

“You’re taking the trials soon?” Kathy nodded sitting up a bit straighter. Passing the trials meant she would finally be one of them. Finally, she would belong. Failing meant only one thing. Death. Ulaz smiled and opened the box next to him. It looked like a net of sensors. He carefully untangled them. 

“The trials will test you more than physically. I have no doubt you’ll pass the physical portion, but you need more training in protecting yourself mentally.” He showed her how to place the sensors on her head, careful to warn her not to get them caught in her ear fur as they would be quite painful to untangle if she did. She nodded and he placed an identical rig on his head. 

“Zarkon has druids who can, and if you ever get caught will, reach into the mind and root around for their answers with no regard for your mind. You need to be able to conceal the truth with no mistakes.” It took nearly three weeks of training for her to be able to lie to Ulaz convincingly enough through the sensor rigs that he recommended to Kolvian that she was ready for the trials. Kolvian had stalled another three days before finally relenting and allowing her to finally face the trials. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kathy slipped on the Altean rig, careful of her ears and sat cross legged across from Pidge, Lance on her left and Shiro on her right. Coran had gone back up to the control room to work on something while they bonded. He was still talking though. 

“Clear your minds.” Kathy closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. But a picture she’d taken a long time ago kept popping to the front of her mind. It was just after her trial, she was sitting on Antok’s shoulder raising her awakened Blade high, it was the only time she remembered Kolvian actually smiling. Thace had been beaming and Ulaz looked beyond proud. Someone, Kolvian’s latest initiate she thought, had caught a picture of them, likely Ulaz’s idea. She opened her eyes and saw the image projected in front of her. She smiled slightly. There wasn’t really any danger in the others seeing it. The initiate hadn’t been a very good photographer and most of the faces were blurred and Antok’s was almost completely in shadow, but the image made her smile slightly. She could see the other images the Paladins were focusing on, they were far clearer if she closed her eyes, so she did so again. Lance’s was a family photo too, though his family was far larger than hers and seemed more open to affection than any of the Blades had ever been. Hunk’s was a fond memory of the first time his mom had shown him how to make something called sushi, made from raw fish, it sounded odd to Kathy. Shiro was thinking of the mission that had gotten him into this mess in the first place, his home with something called the Garrison. Pidge… Pidge was thinking of her brother. Wait her? Kathy stopped to focus on Pidge for a moment and yes. Pidge was female not male. Undercover looking for the truth about her brother at the place called the Garrison. Kathy backed off cycling through the other Paladins minds again. Hunk was starting to root around in the others minds realizing he could but he hadn’t tried hers yet. She couldn’t help but wonder why. Lance was a bit more inquisitive though. He was starting to skim the surface of her thoughts. He was looking for something, Kathy probed back trying to figure out what he was looking for. One word crossed his mind, boyfriend? Kathy nearly snorted, she’d never had time for romance. She projected that thought at the blue paladin and felt a flash of happiness from his direction. Coran’s voice spoke again.

“Alright Paladins, focus on your lions form them in your minds eye.” Kathy did what the Altean instructed, it wasn’t hard. She could feel Red in the back of her mind, she was sleeping in her hanger. She seemed to become inquisitive for a moment when Kathy focused on her but went back to sleep a moment later when she realized she wasn’t needed. The others were doing the same, she could feel them through the sensor she was wearing. Everyone had succeeded but Pidge’s focus was wavering back and forth. 

“Very good, now form Voltron.” It was easier to focus on the giant robot that they’d all seen in the vision knowing the others were focusing as well and had just about as little an idea how to do this as she did. They focused and she felt the lion in her mind, not the real Red, shift and slot into place as the right arm of Voltron. Her eyes were still closed so she was slightly confused when Coran spoke again. 

“Good, just one to go. Almost there.” She cracked open an eye and saw Pidge struggling to focus on her lion. Lance opened his eyes and turned his head to Pidge. 

“Dude! Stop thinking about your girlfriend!” Kathy was careful not to let her confusion bleed through the connection. Pidge frowned and glared at Hunk. 

“It’s hard to focus! Hunk is rooting around in my head.” Hunk frowned opening his own eyes.

“I thought we were open, you can look in my head!” Coran’s voice sounded over the speaker system again. 

“Everyone needs to be able to look in everyone’s head holes! Try again.” They almost made it this time but at the last second the green lion fizzled back into the image of Pidge and her brother. The others groaned and Pidge stood yanking off her sensors and tossing the rig to the ground. 

“I can’t deal with this right now, I’m just tired.” Shiro nodded standing and laying a hand on Pidge’s shoulder. 

“He’s right. We could all use an actual break.” Just as they had all managed to get the sensors off, Lance got his caught in his hair and Kathy had to help him untangle it, and were all sitting down with water in the large juice boxes Allura entered the room. 

“What are you doing sitting around!?” Coran spoke before any of them could. 

“Can’t train too hard Princess.” She looked incensed. 

“Do you think Zarkon is going to sit around? He’s probably sending more ships to Arus right now! It’s time you faced the Gladiator.”


	7. Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathy puts her blade training to use to teach the other paladins how to fight.

With some difficulty Kathy slipped her helmet back on. Lance held in a giggle at the way her ears folded in the helmet but drew his Bayard as the others did. A robot, about as tall as Allura, dropped from the ceiling. Coran spoke over the speakers again.

“To defeat the Gladiator all five Paladins must work together.” The robot powered up and lunged at Pidge who tried to block but was sent flying into Hunk who just managed to keep his footing as he began to fire at the Gladiator screaming loudly. Kathy had to throw up her shield so she didn’t take fire from Hunk’s gun. Lance fired and struck the Gladiator but it barely lost stride as it struck Hunk again. Pidge let out a cry and lunged again but was struck aside landing on top of Hunk with a very un-manly squeak. The gladiator lunged at Lance who fired again but missed as it moved again ready to strike but Kathy got there first. She struck out forcing the gladiator back slashing its staff in half. It didn’t seem phased but she hadn’t expected it to be, it was a robot. So when it lunged she was ready. She dropped and slid through its legs much like she had with Sendek but this time with her hands free she was able to slice a leg off. She slid to a halt as the gladiator wobbled. Shiro lunged and his mechanical hand glowed as he rammed it through the gladiator. It sparked and fell as Shiro pulled his arm out of it. Allura stepped off of the bench she’d been sitting on. 

“Better, but that gladiator was set at a level fit for an Altean child and it still took two of you to beat it. Do you know anything about fighting?” She was looking at Hunk, Lance and Pidge. Pidge pulled herself to her feet then tried to help Hunk up. 

“Not really. We had some self defense classes at the Garrison but nothing like this.” Allura sighed as a beeping began to sound. Coran came over the speakers. 

“The fire suppressors in Bay 3 are going off again.” Allura sighed muttering under her breath.

“I don’t have time for this.” Kathy pulled herself up off the floor. 

“I do, I can teach them.” Allura’s eyes narrowed slightly. 

“I’ve been fighting since I was a child, training since I was a child. I know what I’m doing.” Allura looked like she was about to say something but Coran’s voice came back over the speakers. 

“Excellent number four! Princess I’ll meet you in bay three.” Allura rolled her eyes but left anyway. Shiro smiled at Kathy and motioned her forwards. She sighed but began to show them some basic forms of offence. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kathy flew across the room landing hard and groaning as she pulled herself back up. Thace didn’t offer her a hand but he placed his hands on hers when she was back on her feet. 

“You’re small, use it to your advantage. Elbows in, you present a smaller target. The smaller the target the harder you are to hit. Be quick on your feet and you’ll never get hit.” 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Pidge looked a little incensed when Kathy called her small but her eyes widened with comprehension when Kathy continued, sharing what Thace had told her all those years ago. It was great advice.

“Elbows in Pidge.” She left Pidge to take a few shots at Shiro, knowing the younger girl wouldn’t hurt him. She stepped over to Lance and Hunk. Lance was being way to showy. Kathy stepped between them and grabbed Lance’s ankle and flipped him easily, despite his slight height advantage. He squeaked as he landed and Pidge laughed. 

“I knew I liked her.” Pidge turned back to her sparing match as Kathy knelt on her haunches next to Lance. 

“You’re not being quick enough. You’ve got the legs for speed use them, if they can’t catch you they can’t kill you. Your Bayard is a gun, you don’t have to get close to use it. Distance is your friend.” Lance nodded and held out a hand. Kathy hesitated but helped him to his feet. He grinned wide as she turned to Hunk.

“Your strength is your key. I don’t know many who could lift a gun as heavy as yours. You’re stronger than you know. Work on your speed but if you can overpower your opponent then you won’t have any problems.” Hunk nodded and Kathy let him take a few shots at her. He only got in two out of around ten but he did pack a wallop she would have bruises. That was good, he was strong enough to handle himself, he just had to get over apologizing after every punch, landed or not. Shiro stepped forwards. 

“You forgot me.” Kathy shook her head. 

“No, I didn’t, you don’t need as much work as they do.” Pidge nodded remembering what she’d seen him do to the guards that had nearly caught them on Sendeks ship. Shiro frowned. 

“To be fair, most of what I’ve done is muscle memory. I don’t really know what I’m doing.” Kathy nodded slightly and tossed her Bayard to Pidge who caught it a bit shocked. 

“Alright, of you think you’re rusty let’s spar.” Shiro hesitated but eventually nodded dropping into a fighting stance. Kathy hesitated her tail flicking back and forth for a moment before she lunged. Shiro struck out and Kathy ducked under his arm delivering a glancing blow to his side. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kathy drove her fist into Kolvian’s side and he reeled back coughing. Kathy paused and he spun, still slightly out of breath, using his legs to knock her off her feet. She landed hard flipping back to her feet seconds later when his foot came down where her head had been. They kept sparing for another hour or so before Antok called it a tie. Kolvian stepped up to her as she gulped down a bottle of water. 

“You did well today kittling. But never pause, your opponent won’t. Hesitation is your enemy.” He ran a hand through her hair between her ears in a rare sign of affection. She smiled and he walked away still speaking to her over his shoulders. 

“Ulaz wanted to see you kittling, he’s on the med deck.”


	8. Dinner Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally form Voltron, Allura makes amends.

Kathy and Shiro were both panting by the time they called it quits. Both would have bruises come morning but it had been worth it. Kathy hadn’t had a sparring session that good in months. She whipped her brow and Hunk applauded. Lance spoke in a whisper to Pidge, apparently not aware the Kathy could hear him anyway. 

“I am both scared and aroused right now.” Pidge socked him in the stomach and Kathy barely held in a giggle. Lance lit up as he coughed. 

“She laughs! It’s a miracle!” Kathy rolled her eyes and pulled Shiro to his feet. 

“I haven’t had a sparring session like that in a long time. You’re a spectacular fighter, even if most of it is muscle memory.” Shiro nodded and rolled his false shoulder. 

“You’re not half bad yourself. Who taught you how to fight?” Kathy paused for a second trying to figure out a way to phrase it that wouldn’t reveal too much. 

“My uncles.” Shiro nodded. Lance was still watching her closely, she was about to tell him to take a picture it would last longer when Coran stuck his head around the corner.

“Dinner time Paladins, head on over to the dining hall.” They all nodded to each other and headed out, stretching sore muscles and rubbing bruises as they went. Lance threw an arm around Kathy’s shoulder. She tensed slightly but relaxed when he grinned. 

“You are one scary talented lady, has anyone ever told you that?” Kathy shrugged. No one really had told her that before, not in those words anyway. 

“I for one feel privileged to be on a team with such a beautiful woman.” Lance grinned again bouncing his eyebrows slightly. Kathy paused as Pidge groaned and Hunk grabbed Lance’s shoulder steering him towards the dining room. Kathy raised an eyebrow as Lance made guns with his fingers and winked as Hunk pulled him around the corner. A hand laid on her shoulder and she looked up at Shiro.

“I think he likes you. Come on, I’m starving.” He glanced at Kathy who looked very confused and frowned.

“If it makes you uncomfortable I’m sure he’ll stop. You just have to ask.” Kathy shook her head. 

“It doesn’t really make me uncomfortable. It’s just kind of confusing. No one’s ever really called me pretty before.” Shiro raised an eyebrow at her. 

“I have a hard time believing that, you are a very beautiful person… Galra… Alien…” Kathy’s mouth twitched on the edge of a smile, but there was a bitter flavor to it that Shiro couldn’t help but notice.

“I’m half Galra. Most treat halflings with contempt or worse.” Shiro laid his human hand back on her shoulder. 

“We won’t judge you for who you are, I promise that much.” Kathy raised an eyebrow and Shiro let out a dry chuckle. 

“We’ll work on Allura, she’s been asleep for ten thousand years and woke up to find out her planet had been destroyed by the Empire, which is mostly Galra. She’ll come around.” Kathy nodded. 

“I get it, I really do. And in all honesty I’m used to that kind of thing.” She really was, every time someone found out she was half Galra not full they tended to stick their nose up at her. Shiro nodded towards the dining hall. 

“Well you’re a member of team Voltron now, no one’s gonna treat you like that here.” Kathy’s smile was small but genuine so Shiro called it a win as they walked into the room. Two of the seats were still open one between Pidge and Lance and one at the end of the table closest to Allura. Kathy b lined for the seat farther away from the Altean Princess and Lance grinned as she sat down next to him. Pidge rolled her eyes. Hunk made an odd snorting noise. Shiro smiled at the Alteans. 

“I whipped up a batch of focusing food. After this meal you’ll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux.” Shiro nodded and took his seat. 

“Smells great Coran.” They went to pick up their eating utensils, the closest comparison Pidge could make was a spork but this one was fancy and had lights on it, why would you need lights on an eating utensil. Coran whipped a small remote out of his pocket and slammed a finger into the button. Suddenly Kathy found both her hands cuffed for the second time in as many days. But this time instead of being cuffed to each other her hands were cuffed to the Paladins on either side of her, one to Lance and one to Pidge. Hunk made a noise of distress, Lance swore, Pidge did too but hers seemed far more colorful if Shiro’s glare her way was any indication. 

“I saw a lot of solid individual performances out there today but you’re still struggling to work as a team. So welcome to the final bonding exercise of the evening.” Hunk sighed.

“Coran, I want you to really think about what you’re doing right now.” Coran smiled slightly. 

“Oh this one is a classic, you get to feed each other like a pack of Yelmores!” This particular exercise was not going well. She’d accidently put her hand in Lance’s food goo twice now. He didn’t seem to mind all that much but he did mind when Hunk accidently bit his hand. Kathy growled, she was having trouble focusing on keeping her shift mostly human.

“This is ridiculous.” She growled wanting to cross her arms but not being able to. Shiro seemed to agree with her. 

“Can’t you just give us a break. Everyone’s been working really hard today.” Kathy nodded. 

“He’s right. We aren’t just prisoners here for you to toy with like…” Lance finished her sentence for her. 

“Like a bunch of toy prisoners!” Kathy nodded. 

“Thank you Lance.” Coran bristled slightly. 

“You do not yell at the Princess.” Pidge finally piped up. 

“Oh the princess of what!? We’re the only people out here and she’s no princess of ours.” Pidge looked like she had more to say but she was interrupted as a splat sounded across the room and a spork full of green goo smacked her in the face. There was a moments silence before Kathy full out growled. He teeth lengthened slightly as for the first time that day she didn’t focus on keeping herself looking more like her fellow paladins. 

“Pidge go loose!” Kathy snatched up her plate of goo with the hand attached to Pidge who had gone limp as instructed letting Kathy toss the whole plate at Allura’s face. Coran leapt in front of the princess snatching one of serving trays and sending the goo in it flying all over all five paladins. There was a moments silence before Hunk grinned.

“Oh, it is on!” What followed was one of the messiest most fun ‘meals’ of Kathy’s life, she was pretty sure no one actually ate anything. She’d never really done anything like this before, the Blades would have seen it as a frivolous waste. But here it didn’t seem like it, not as she took a splash of food goo in the face for Pidge who fired back at Coran over her shoulder. She didn’t know how long their food fight lasted before Hunk slipped in a pile of the green goo and brought all five Paladins crashing to the ground. Kathy couldn’t help it she let out a belt of laughter as she fell. It felt so wrong to laugh, she couldn’t remember the last time she had, but she couldn’t help it as she landed half in Lance’s lap. All five Paladins were laughing loudly until Allura popped up from where she’d been crouched. 

“Don’t you see what you’re doing!?” There was a pause as the Paladins braced for another rant. But instead Allura grinned wide. 

“You’re finally working together.” They all grinned at each other and managed to untangle themselves enough to get to their feet. Shiro grinned at them.

“She’s right. Are you guys thinking what I’m thinking?” They all glanced at each other and grinned before nodding. Shiro’s smile grew wider as he nodded. 

“Let’s go form Voltron!” Hunk chuckled slightly. 

“I was thinking about dessert but yeah let’s do it!” Lance laughed at Hunk as Coran released their restraints. Kathy held out a hand to him and helped him to his feet. He grinned at her.

“Hey, you’re more purple than you were before.” Kathy frowned and looked down. He was right. She had reverted back to her normal halfway form. Splotches of purple had appeared on her arms and she knew they were on her neck and face as well, her teeth finally felt normal again, the canines had lengthened to a much sharper point. She was about to apologize when Lance brushed a piece of hair out of her face and smiled at her. 

“You look nice, like a painting.” Hunk threw an arm around Lance’s shoulder and grinned at the boy. 

“You flirt! You do look nice though Kat, more comfortable.” Kat smiled slightly and they headed out to their lions. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

This time when they began flying together something was different. It was like they were more connected this time. Kathy felt it when all the lions began to change, shifting into something else, something more. There were cheers from several of the lions.

“I’m a LEG!” Hunk shouted as Kathy let herself laugh with the others. They had done it, Voltron was real.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Later that night after a quick but nice meal where no food was thrown, well almost none, Kathy lay in her bed watching the ceiling. Her tail twitched back and forth. She couldn’t believe what was happening to her. Two days ago she’d been a spy against Zarkon on board one of his command ships. Now she was a Paladin of Voltron. She had friends. Outside the Blades she’d never really had anyone. And there was that. She had three days now. Three days before she would be unable to contact her family again. There was a squeak from her door and she whirled before spotting the small Altean mice sitting in her door dragging something behind them. She stood and stepped over to them. It was a slipper, a single red lion slipper very similar to Lance’s. The mice squeaked at her, all four of them shoving the slipper towards her. She grinned and picked it up. The mice squeaked again and seemed to grin before they scampered out of her room then stuck their heads back in. They wanted her to follow them. She shrugged, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do at the moment. She followed the mice.

They lead her to a room a few floors away. There were pods in the room much like the room that stored their armor but two of these pods were empty. The other three had what appeared to be sleep wear in red, black and green. The red pod was open and Allura was standing in the room looking at it with a frown. Kathy really wanted to leave but she cleared her throat to let the Altean know she was there. Allura jumped slightly and looked over at the door. She sighed and turned to the half Galra girl. She was holding the other slipper in her hand. She spotted the mice grinning at each other at Kathy’s feet and the slipper in her hand and smiled slightly. 

“I was wondering why you would have only taken one.” Kathy didn’t quite smile. Allura frowned down at her feet for a moment before taking a deep breath. 

“I’m sorry.” Kathy’s ears twitched in confusion. Allura held out the other slipper. 

“I have been acting like a complete child towards you and I’m sorry. The red lion chose you for a reason, I need to respect that and you.” Kathy paused but finally reached out for the slipper. 

“I accept your apology, but I understand why you felt that way. Almost everyone does. Zarkon has conquered most of the known universe. He and his armies have done terrible things in the name of Galra, but not all of us are evil Princess.” Allura nodded and managed a small smile, but she looked eager to change the subject. 

“I heard you tell Shiro that you aren’t a full Galra, only half. Is that true?” Kathy nodded looking down at her purple splotched arm. 

“Yes. It is. I don’t know where my father was from though. I never met him. According to my uncle who raised me my mother said his planet was very primitive, they hadn’t managed long distance space travel yet. I don’t know if they have yet, but they also tended to fear those who were different which is why she took me with her when she left after I was born. She died fighting Zarkon.” Allura hesitated but laid a hand on Kathy’s. 

“I understand how that feels. We’ll make sure our parents sacrifice wasn’t in vain.” Allura smiled, finally managing a genuine one and Kathy nodded smiling back at the Princess. As she headed back to her room a red robe over her arm she wondered what Kolivan would say if he could see her now.


	9. The Village

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> King Alfor contemplates the new Paladins, Kathy is mistaken for a goddess.

The next dawn found Kathy up much earlier than anyone else in the castle save Coran who told her she had the run of the castle. He was apparently trying to let everyone sleep in a touch after the stress of the past few days. That was a concept that Kathy wasn’t quite familiar with. Sleep was a necessity sure but not for relaxation, not at least while living with the Blades. She wandered for about ten minutes before growing bored. She changed into her paladin armor and made her way to the training room. She stood there feeling foolish for a few minutes. She cleared her throat.

“Ummm.. Start training program?” The computer beeped and an image of a tall Altean man appeared. He smiled slightly. He looked quite a bit like Allura actually. He bowed slightly. 

“Hello, you must be the new Red Paladin. I am… Or rather I was King Alfor. You seem a bit unsure about the training rooms programing.” Kathy frowned slightly.

“Yes, on all counts, but I’m sorry you were King Alfor. I don’t understand.” The ghostly holographic image nodded. 

“I knew there was a chance that I would fail in defeating Zarkon so I placed my daughter in a cryo-sleep pod and hid the castle away. Before I confronted him I transferred all my memories, my very being into a computer bank to help guide Allura after I was gone. I thought I could lend a hand to the new paladins as well.” Kathy blinked slightly, still confused. 

“That’s very kind of you.” Alfor nodded and smiled again. He took her through a basic tutorial of the way the training deck worked. When he was finished he bowed out. Kathy was left alone duking it out in hand to hand with the gladiator. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Alfor smiled to himself. The new paladins were getting closer as a team rapidly, much more rapidly than he’d expected. The new green paladin was awake now, back in front of the healing pods that held the prisoners they’d freed. The new black paladin was doing sit ups in his room. The yellow and blue ones were still asleep. Allura was still asleep as well. She had stayed up nearly all night the night before trying to get the particle barrier back online. Coran was busy fiddling with something on one of the lower decks. Alfor smiled a bit sadly, he could only hope that they would succeed where he had failed.

Once everyone was awake the paladins agreed they should practice piloting Voltron a bit more. Who knew how much of a message Sendek had managed to send out to Zarkon, if any. Hours later they were re-entering the castle tired but bolstered it had gone pretty well. Lance grinned at Kathy and pulled off his helmet. He brushed back his hair. 

“So Kit Kat, how far do you think my lion kicked that broken piece of alien ship? Had to have been like two miles right?” Kathy frowned. 

“Your kick put us off balance, we fell. We need to work on that.” Lance frowned and sputtered as Kathy carefully pulled off her helmet her ears unfolding from where they sat when her helmet was on. Hunk wrapped a hand around his shoulder and patted him on the back. 

“Tough luck buddy. She’s not gonna throw herself at your feet like the girls at the Garrison.” Lance frowned. He had been one of the most popular students at the Garrison, a ladies man through and through, most of the girls at the Garrison threw themselves at his feet. He was widely hailed as the best pilot of his generation, but watching Kat fly, he knew he was an amateur. She was fantastic, both as a flyer and a fighter. If he was honest he was a bit in awe. Hunk patted him on the shoulder. 

“Come on you can commiserate with me about the cute alien while you help me cook.” Hunk dragged Lance off to the kitchen. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

They were in the middle of lunch when the alarms began to ring again. Allura who had been talking to Coran waved her hand at the wall. A screen appeared showing the bridge outside the front of the castle. A small creature was peeking out from behind one of the bushes. He seemed to take a deep breath then ran across the bridge and hid behind a rock. He repeated the act again coming closer and closer to the doors. Kathy stood summoning her Bayard. 

“I told you I saw something out there the other day.” Allura nodded. 

“Yes, it appears you were right, I’m sorry I should have listened. But he looks harmless enough, a local Arusian.” Kathy looked skeptical. Lance grinned at the small creature. 

“He’s so cute!” Allura nodded. 

“We should go greet him, see what he wants.” Kathy shook her head, she still hadn’t put away her Bayard. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, looks can be deceiving, he could be dangerous.” Allura put a hand on Kathy’s arm. 

“Alteans believe in diplomacy first, Arus has been our host for ten thousand years. I think they deserve answers about the castle.” Reluctantly Kathy put away her Bayard. She, Allura, Lance and Hunk headed out of the castle to meet the intruder. 

His reaction was far from what Kathy had expected. He spoke clearly, calling himself Klizap. Then he spotted Kathy and dropped to his knees. 

“The lion goddess.” Kathy frowned, very confused. Lance grinned looking at Kathy, his finger tapping his chin. 

“He’s got a point, you do look very cat like. And amazingly pretty.” He winked while Kathy blushed bright purple. Allura rolled her eyes and explained the situation to the Arusian, he agreed to lead them to the village. He kept glancing at Kathy though. But it wasn’t the same way she got looked at in public space stations though, the look this small creature was shooting her was one of reverence not disgust. She warily followed the others to the village.


	10. The Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several of the Blades receive word that Kathy is likely dead.

Ulaz knew why he was out in the middle of nowhere. He knew he was being punished. He knew why he was being punished. He'd freed the champion, lost his position at the left hand of the druids a strategic position it had taken him years to achieve. Kolvian had been beyond livid, Ulaz was slightly surprised he hadn't killed him. But he hadn't. He'd instead sent him out into the middle of nowhere with nothing but the stars and the crystals for company. He normally hated being out here alone it was far too quiet but today it was a blessing if only because he could cry in peace. His somber tearful mood had begun with a call from the main base. That rarely boded well. 

"She's gone?" Antok nodded his ears drooping but his voice determined. 

"By all appearances yes. It seems from what little information we've been able to get a hold of that she blew the ship nearly a week early. Over a small planet called Arus." Ulaz's mind raced. 

"Is it inhabitable." Antok frowned. 

"No record on that. It hasn't been accessible for many generations, no one's sure why some kind of field protecting the planet. Keeping it off the sensors." Then Antok looked up from his data pad and frowned. 

"Ulaz you can't go after her you know that. None of us can, no matter how much we want to. If we could I would already be on my way there." Ulaz stared down at his feet for a moment. Antok sighed. 

"If she's still alive she still has two days to find a way to contact someone, anyone in the blades." Ulaz nodded to himself. 

"Can we extend that. Give her more time?" Antok frowned. 

"You know we can't Ulaz. What would Thace say if he knew you were thinking of breaking protocol like that?" The fur on the back of Ulaz's neck rose. 

"If it meant saving the kittling he would do whatever it takes. We both know that Antok." He cut off the call as he felt tears build behind his eyes. Ulaz slammed his fists down on the console as his eyes brimmed over. He couldn’t comprehend it. She couldn’t be gone. It felt like just yesterday he’d helped her mother deliver her. 

The blades had been quite surprised when Krolia had showed up from a simple information gathering mission heavy with child. They couldn’t just leave her alone though, she was Kolvian’s sister after all, and one of the most skilled blades they had. So they had been there for her throughout the troublesome pregnancy, a halfling was rarely easily carried or delivered. But they had gotten through it. Thace and Antok covered Krolia’s patrols and as much as was possible the assignments she would have taken. Kolvian kept her company focusing on training the new recruits and compiling information. Ulaz took care of her medically. And when the baby had arrived Krolia had named her in the tradition of the kit’s fathers world. 

She had been quite the handful as a kittling. Once Krolia was fully recovered she went back out on assignments. When Kathy was barely a year and a half she’d gone out and she hadn’t returned. He remembered Kolvian breaking protocol, the only time anyone could remember him doing that. All he’d ever found of his sister was her Blade, carefully hidden so the Empire wouldn’t find it. He’d returned to the base and refused to have anything to do with the kittling for nearly a year. The others had taken turns caring for her. It had been an interesting few years, some of the fiercest warriors with a tiny pink and purple splotched kit clinging to their legs and toddling around after them. 

Eventually Kolvian had gotten over himself and begun to help the others take care of her. He’d begun her training young, even though Ulaz had recommended against it. She had always been so small. Female Galra were generally slightly smaller than the males but Kathy seemed to have inherited the height of her Father’s species. She was at least three feet smaller than the largest of them. But she was agile, more so than a fully grown Galra. She’d used to climb walls in the base when she was feeling restless. She and one of the other young recruits Regis had raced up the walls of the observation deck once. She’d made it to the ceiling first but had fallen and broken her arm. Ulaz let himself sink into his memories once again. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Antok was angry. He tossed another recruit across the training room with a growl. There was a whistle from across the room. Kolvian gestured the recruits out of the training deck. Antok lowered his head slightly as Kolvian came to stand in front of him. 

“Antok, as much as I approve of doubling down on training I don’t believe you are doing it for the right reason.” Antok hung his head. He knew Kolvian was right, he was angry. Angry he hadn’t been there, angry at her for not contacting someone for help. But she hadn’t really been the type. She’d been taught at a young age to be self-reliant. He couldn’t help but wonder if that was what had led to her death. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Meanwhile across the universe, things were looking quite grim in the castle of the lions. Sendek was preparing to launch the castle, Shiro and Lance his prisoners. Pidge the only paladin left inside, Allura and Kathy trapped outside the castle and Hunk and Coran on a mission to the nearby Balmera. Things looked quite grim indeed.


	11. Turning Tables

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Paladins take back the castle, Kathy manages a shaky connection with the Blades.

Kathy let out a relieved breath as the particle barrier around the castle dropped. As soon as it was low enough she raced inside, from what they’d been hearing over the mics in Allura’s earrings and Kathy’s helmet they knew where to go. Racing into the main control room Kathy drew her Bayard. Sendek had Pidge in his large mechanical hand. The human girl was dwarfed by the hand and squirming in his grip. He growled and tightened his grip when he spotted the yellow eyes under Kathy’s helmet.

“Traitor! Stay back!” Kathy paused for a millisecond, looking for an opening. But before she could find one a flash of light struck Sendek from behind and he reflexively released his hand. Pidge scrambled away from him as Allura glanced to the side to see where the light had come from. Lance was sitting up, wavering back and forth slightly his Bayard pointed at Sendek. As Allura watched Lance tilted backwards falling onto the wall behind him, out cold once more. Kathy snarled and lunged both feet slamming into Sendek sending him staggering. She slashed upwards reopening the wound on his chest. Sendek howled and spun smacking Kathy across the room. Pidge lunged swiping at Sendek’s arm, hitting the light, the energy that connected his arm to his shoulder. He roared as the arm fell to the floor. Kathy took the opening, striking out at Sendek as Allura dove past them to the consol. Kathy snarled as she slashed across Sendek’s chest the same way she had back on his ship. Allura made a noise of triumph and shouted over her shoulder at the half Galra girl.

“Kat! Now!” Kathy growled and kicked Sendek with both feet forcing him to stumble backwards into the power crystal. Allura slammed her hand into the control and Sendek roared with frustration as a particle barrier rose up around him. Pidge cheered from where she was sprawled on the floor. Kathy took a deep shaky breath and let her Bayard shrink back to its inactive form before letting it slip back into the holster at the hip of her armor as Sendek beat against the barrier. She would admit that it was pretty cool that the solid Bayard could turn to pure light and be stored as such until she needed it. Altean technology, old though it was still outstripped Galra tech by leaps and bounds. Kathy pulled off her helmet and smiled slightly as she pulled Pidge to her feet. Together they walked over to where Shiro was still cuffed, looking slightly worse for the wear. Lance looked like a stiff wind could blow him over.

“Lance, are you ok?” Kathy reached out a hand to him as Pidge used her Bayard to cut through Shiro’s cuffs. He reached out and took her hand, but made no move to rise. Instead he smiled at her looking slightly punch drunk. 

“We did it. We are a good team.” Kathy knelt down next to him and felt herself smile. She nodded. 

“Yes, we are.” Lance’s smile widened for a moment but then his eyes rolled up in his head and he tilted forwards, unconscious again. Kathy caught him before he could hit the ground though and carefully rearranged him so he was laying in her arms. Shiro was leaning on Pidge, smiling at them slightly, the bite of concern for Lance clear in his eyes. Then another alarm began to blare. Kathy tensed, shifting slightly so she was between Lance and any potential threats. Then blessedly Hunk’s voice came over the castle wide intercom. 

“We’re back! And we got the crystal!” Kathy breathed a sigh of relief. Allura tapped her earring, which began to glow again. 

“That is wonderful news. I will meet you in the hanger. Coran, you, Hunk and I should be enough to carry the crystal where it needs to be. Pidge and Kat can get Shiro and Lance to the infirmary.” Kathy nodded to Allura, and scooped Lance up as she stood. He wasn’t very heavy, she’d once hauled Antok nearly six miles to a rendezvous point, Lance was a twig in comparison. She nodded to Pidge who straightened looking important as Shiro leaned on her. Allura nodded to them.

“Are you sure you know the way?” Kathy nodded, she was good at memorizing new places quickly. Thace had made a game of it when she was young. If she could accurately navigate a maze she got a sweet. She smiled slightly as she carried Lance out of the room, listening to Sendek’s muffled threats fading into the background. They made it to the medical wing in less than ten minutes and Kathy lay Lance down on one of the tables while Pidge, who looked very tired. 

“Grab that box over there, Pidge.” Pidge obeyed and watched over her shoulder as Kathy opened the box and pulled out a small machine from the box. She turned to Shiro. 

“Arm out.” Shiro raised an eyebrow and obeyed. Kathy ran the machine over his arm. 

“How do you know how to use that?” Kathy frowned slightly at the readout on the machine.

“I don’t. But I’m betting he does.” Pidge jumped and turned as Kathy pointed at the door. Coran had just entered the room. He smiled at her. 

“You’re doing very well, you just need to know Altean and I’ll have you running this place in no time. You seem familiar with medical procedure.” He said as he stripped Lance out of his armor and slipped him into the healing pod suit. Kathy’s smile was small. 

“My uncle. He’s a doctor.” There was concern in her eyes, but only Shiro seemed to notice. Kathy set down the machine she’d been using to scan Shiro and helped Coran sit Lance up as the lights in the castle flickered and died. When they came back on they were brighter than before and no longer purple but the bright blue they had been before. Kathy helped Coran place Lance in the healing pod with the blue v over it. She stepped back as the pod whirred to life. Coran tapped the front of the pod and sighed. 

“We didn’t end up getting a setting for your species. So, we don’t have a set level. He’s going to be in there a while.” The computer whirred again and the dial at the front of Lance’s pod ticked down by several hours. Coran frowned and stepped over to the computer bay next to the pods. The other three paladins in the room looked at him, worry building. 

“Kathy, what planet were your parents from?” Kathy frowned at the question. 

“My mother was Galra, I never knew my father. I was barely a year old when my mother died and my uncles never really talked about my father, they never met him. I don’t know what he was.” Coran nodded and turned to Shiro and Pidge.

“What did you say your species was called again?” Shiro frowned as Pidge answered. 

“Humans why?” Kathy stepped forwards slightly. 

“Coran, does this mean what I think it means?” Coran nodded. 

“You’re half Galra, half human. The computers are using the data that they collected from your human half to speed Lance’s healing process.” Kathy sat down hard on the nearest chair. She’d always wondered where he father had come from she’d never thought she would find out like this. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Later that night Kathy sat alone in her room sharpening her blade. There was a tentative knock at the door. Kathy stood sheathing her blade and stepping over to the control panel. She’d been expecting Shiro, who had been only mildly injured and refused a healing pod but instead it was Pidge standing at her door looking small but determined. 

“Hi, can I come in?” Kathy nodded and stood aside, allowing the smaller girl access. Pidge stood in the middle of the room and took a deep breath before turning to Kathy. 

“Are you planning on leaving? Cause I was checking the pod Hunk and Coran took to the Balmera and I noticed another of the pods was open. I hadn’t noticed it before because of everything that had been happening. There are a set number of people who would know how to do that here. Hunk’s too scared of being alone in space and Allura and Coran wouldn’t have had time, with fixing the castle. And it wasn’t me, and Shiro is all set to rush into this defenders of universe business. So are you planning to leave?” Kathy sighed and sat down on the edge of her bed. She motioned for Pidge to sit down next to her. After a moment the other girl did. 

“Yes, yesterday I was planning to leave. I was going to slip out in the pod during the party. But then everything happened.” Pidge looked at her slightly confused. 

“Why were you going to leave?” Kathy looked down at her purple and pink splotched hands. 

“Similar reasons to why you were going to leave. My family is out there, among the stars, fighting against Zarkon. I thought it might be better if I was out there. But then everything that happened today happened and I don’t think I think that anymore. I would like them to know I’m not dead, but I think I’m needed here.” Pidge nodded and hesitated before wrapping Kathy in a hug. The Galra girl froze for a moment before sinking into the hug and returning it. 

“I’m glad you’re not leaving. I think we make a good team.” Kathy rested her head on top of Pidge’s just like her uncles often did for her. 

“Me too.” Pidge pulled back slightly and frowned. 

“Wait why would your family think you’re dead?” Kathy sighed. 

“They knew my mission, to destroy Sendek’s ship. They’ll know by now that something went wrong. Whether or not they know exactly what happened depends on how much they can intercept from whatever messages Sendek managed to get out before the ship went down. I had a communicator that I could use to contact them but I lost it when I fled Sendek’s ship. I have one day before I can’t contact them again. They change the codes so that it’s harder to hack.” Pidge nodded thoughtfully.

“But you have the codes?” Kathy nodded. 

“I can’t give them to anyone.” Pidge nodded waving her hands at Kathy. 

“No. I figured that! But you just need a separated com system, right?” Kathy nodded. 

“A clean one. One that isn’t connected to the Empire.” Pidge nodded. 

“The castle wouldn’t work then, because we aren’t sure what Sendek did to the castle, but the pods have com systems right?” Kathy nodded. 

“We have a pod that wasn’t even in the castle when Sendek was taking over. The one Hunk and Coran took to the Balmera! It’s slightly damaged but it could work!” Kathy shot to her feet her heart swelling with hope. Pidge grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room and down to the pods. Kathy pulled off her jacket and Pidge rolled her sleeves up. They set to work checking the systems on the pod. The pod itself was slightly damaged and scorched but the coms system was almost completely intact. Pidge agreed to sit outside the room while Kathy made the call. She understood, she’d want some alone time with her family if she could have it. 

Kathy took a deep breath and keyed in the codes for her direct line to Kolivan. She crossed her fingers and hoped. The connection wasn’t great. The pods weren’t designed for interstellar communication. But it was there. Kathy felt like cheering as she smiled. She had to talk fast though, she wasn’t sure how long the connection would stay stable. 

“Kolivan! I can only hope this is actually getting through. The Ion Cannon plans were destroyed as per mission parameters. The ship went down too, and Sendek has been disabled, but there’s something everyone in the blades needs to know, the universe has hope again. Voltorn lives.” The console went dark. Kathy swore slamming a hand down into the console before opening the pod and stepping out scrubbing at her eyes. She cleared her throat. 

“You can come back in Pidge.” Pidge poked her head around the door and smiled slightly. 

“Did you get through?” Kathy sighed. 

“I hope so. Lets go get something to eat, I’m starving.” Pidge nodded grinning slightly. Kathy followed the small human out of the hanger, glancing over her shoulder at the pod like it had the answers she was looking for. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kolivan stared down at his pad as he tried to pick apart the pieces of transmission they had received nearly three hours ago. It wasn’t from one of their coms, not from Galra tech at all that they could tell but whoever it was had had the codes to try and call him directly. He didn’t dare hope. The transmission was so garbled that there was almost nothing left of it but static. He was about to give up when a broken, crackling voice sounded over the end of the transmission. Only two words made it through. 

“Voltron lives.” He knew that voice and he felt hope creep back into his heart as he replayed the last few seconds of the recording, there was no video, only blurred static but he’d know his sister’s kits voice anywhere. He couldn’t share this with anyone, it wasn’t conclusive enough proof that she was alive, not with all the evidence against her but he could have that spark of hope in his heart. Those two words filled him with more hope than he’d had in a long time. 

“Voltron lives.”


	12. Some Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Castle takes off.

Kathy was at the back of the group as they gathered around the healing pod that held Lance. The others were babbling. Hunk reached forwards to tap the front of the pod but Allura caught his hand. 

“Just give him a few more ticks!” Pidge frowned. 

“What’s a tick?” Kathy stepped forwards. 

“You know a time slice.” Shiro frowned slightly. 

“You mean like a second?” Allura, Coran and Kathy all frowned. 

“What’s a second?” Pidge dug in her pocket for a moment. 

“It’s the shortest common measure of time on Earth, see?” She held out what looked like a small orange data pad that was counting up. Allura shook her head.

“I think ticks are bigger.” Kathy nodded, she couldn’t help but agree with the princess, ticks were definitely longer than seconds. The princess seemed to need to confirm this though. “Coran do you have a ticker?” Coran nodded and pulled out an Altean ticker. The small group gathered around. Kathy rolled her eyes. She understood that they couldn’t do much while Coran was clearing the ship of the Galra energy as much as was possible while Lance was healing. The others spent a few ticks trying to figure out if a tick was longer than a second, it was. Kathy was distracted by the soft sound of the healing pod opening. She stepped forwards and caught Lance as he stumbled. She carefully steered him over to the others. He blinked at them.

“What’s going on, you guys having a clock party?” Kathy smiled slightly as Hunk wrapped Lance in a hug, she rolled her eyes as he flirted with Allura. They let him get dressed and headed up to the dining hall to fill Lance in on what had happened. The story went by rather quickly even with Pidge babbling about Kathy nearly cutting Sendak in half. Kathy frowned slightly. 

“That’s not quite right Pidge. A few more inches and I would have finally put him down though. Allura insisted that we needed him alive.” Kathy frowned at Allura, the princess frowned right back.

“We can get more information out of him alive than dead.” Lance spoke up, holding out his spoon to one of the Altean mice. 

“So wait, where’s Sendak now?” Allura looked at him, smiling slightly at the mouse he was feeding.

“He’s in a cryopod here on the ship. We can’t risk putting him in a healing pod but this way we may be able to extract his knowledge of the Galra Empire.” Kathy shook her head. 

“He’s too dangerous to be allowed to live. We should have killed him when we had the chance.” The room was silent for a moment save for the sound of the mouse eating Lance’s food. 

“On that rather violent note, what are we doing next?” Kathy rolled her eyes at Pidge’s words.

“Pidge, its war. Violence is something you’re gonna have to get used to. That is a legitimate question though, what are we doing next?” She turned to Allura. Allura blinked at her but Hunk was the one who spoke up.

“Well clearly we have to go to the Balmera and free Shay and her people!” Kathy nodded. 

“Having a Balmera on our side would be a good idea. They’re pacifists but the crystals are beyond useful.” Shiro raised an eyebrow at her slightly but nodded. 

“Hunk’s right. He promised to go back and help her, and I say that’s exactly what we do. It’s time to man up everybody.” Kathy noticed Pidge twitch at the phrase. They all stood to prep for takeoff when Pidge spoke. 

“Wait. There’s something I need to get off my chest, and I just hope it doesn’t make you think about me any differently. Just so there are no more secrets between us, I can’t man up. I’m a girl. Well I mean I can man up, it’s just a phrase but...” Pidge was interrupted by Lance spluttering. 

“You’re a girl! Since when!” Pidge gave him a look. Allura shook her head at Lance. 

“I’ve known for some time, nothing has changed Pidge.” Pidge smiled at the Princess. Hunk nodded.

“Yeah it was kinda obvious.” Shiro smiled at them. 

“Admitting who you are makes you a better Paladin, I’m proud of you.” Coran looked a little confused.

“We were supposed to think you were a boy?” Kathy shrugged.

“Boy, girl, something in between, doesn’t matter to me as long as we’re on the same side against Zarkon.” Pidge nodded, grinning wide. 

“Great, now let’s launch this castle ship!” Lance stared as the others began to make their way out of the dining hall.

“Wait! Pidge is a girl and the castle is a ship! How long was I out!” Hunk let out a belt of laughter as they changed into their armor. Kathy didn’t seem to care if they changed in the same room or not, easily slipping out of the clothes Shiro had found for her and into the red armor. Pidge was still a bit shy and changed in the room next to the main one. Lance couldn’t help but stare at the scars that littered Kathy’s skin. The most prominent one was at her left shoulder. It ran around the top of her shoulder. It looked like the blow had nearly severed her arm. Shiro noticed some stretching around the scar, it was old. She had to have been no older than thirteen when she had received it. There were other scars, some nearly faded with time, some still pink, or very light purple, and healing. No one made any comment on her scars through. 

 

They all took their seats on the command deck. Pidge looked around.

“Um how are we supposed to strap in?” All the aliens present frowned. 

“Why would you need to strap in?” Allura nodded at Kathy’s question. 

“We won’t be heading directly into a battle.” Pidge shook her head. 

“It’s just earth ships have you strap in before takeoff, cause takeoff messes with gravity.” Coran laughed. 

“The Castle has artificial gravity of its own. You’ll never know the difference.” Kathy shook her head. Earth was much much more primitive than she’d ever guessed, if they hadn’t even worked out artificial gravity. She was wondering if she would ever get the chance to ask Kolivan if he had known as the Castle of the Lions took off for the first time in ten thousand years.


	13. Dirty Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathy cleans up a few messes. Rolo sends the Galra after Voltron.

Once they were off Arus it would take several dobashes to reach the Balmera. Kathy took off her helmet and set it down in her chair. She stepped up to Coran. 

“The shaft in the generator room, where does it end?” Coran glanced at her. She spoke quietly. “Pidge says she dropped Haxus down that shaft, Rover too though that wasn’t on purpose. Someone needs to deal with the body. I’d prefer it not have to be Pidge.” Coran smiled slightly and nodded. He pulled up a map of the ship and pointed. 

“That’s the most likely place he would have landed. I doubt it’ll be a pretty sight though it’s an eighty seven foot drop.” Kathy nodded. 

“Don’t worry about me Coran, I’ve see worse.” Coran’s smile slipped as Kathy left the command deck. He frowned after her for a moment. Then he shook his head and turned back to the console, setting a route to the Balmera. 

 

It took Kathy a tick or two to find the body, Coran had been right, it wasn’t a pretty sight. His limbs were twisted and there was a nearly dry puddle of blood around him. Kathy shook her head and kicked him over out of the puddle. She grabbed both of his arms and dragged him to an airlock she’d noticed on the way there. She dumped the body into the cold unforgiving void of space and made her way back over to the spot where Haxus had landed. There were pieces of Rover there too. Those she treated with a bit more dignity, gathering up as many as she could and placing it in the Green Lion’s hanger. She did her best to get all the blood off the pieces first. She heard a soft approving purr at the back of her mind and smiled over at Red. She stepped over to the lion and patted her nose as she knelt down. The doors behind her opened. She turned and nodded to the other Paladins. Pidge frowned at her workbench, then her eyes widened. 

“Is that?” Kathy nodded. 

“What’s left of Rover. I thought you might want to see what could be salvaged.” Pidge tackle hugged the older girl. The younger girl’s face fell. “What about…” 

“Haxus is taken care of, no need to worry about it.” Pidge nodded. Hunk and Lance were talking behind Pidge. 

“Why don’t you just ask her?” Hunk asked seeming exasperated. 

“Cause it’s not polite to ask a lady that!” Kathy raised an eyebrow at Pidge who shook her head. 

“Ask me what?” Lance went bright red. Hunk laughed. 

“Lance was wondering how old you are.” Lance spluttered behind Hunk as Kathy frowned slightly. 

“I mean it’s kind of difficult to tell because I was born on a space station. But in Earth years I think seventeen.” Pidge began to babble about how differently time was measured as they headed back to the bridge. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kathy stepped over to the screen and tapped on the signal.

“Looks like a scavenger craft.” Allura raised an eyebrow at her so she continued. “A larger rig, manned by a small crew, usually at least one cyber unit. Mostly used for scavenging dead ships and stations. Smugglers like crafts like this too. Big ships, lots of places to hide things they don’t want people to know they have.” 

“Their signal says they’re without power we have to help them.” Allura said reading the Altean on the screen. Hunk shook his head.

“We have to get to Shay!” Allura turned to him as Coran changed their course for the moon. 

“We will but the Paladin code states we must help all those in need.” Kathy put her helmet on as they made their way to the moons surface. Shiro frowned. 

“Do we need our helmets?” Kathy shook her head.

“I just think it’s best if they don’t know that there’s a Galra onboard. No one’s likely to take kindly to the idea.” Shiro frowned but allowed it, watching as the dark sunshade feature of the helmet slipped into place obscuring Kathy’s face.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Rolo mused that that could have gone so much worse as he watched the castle ship leave them behind. The red paladin, he’d never caught her whole name, she’d bristled when any of them had started to call her by it, had taken out their entire left engine bank. Kat, that was all they had ever called her, had been a bit of an enigma. She kept her face covered and she flew like she’d been in the sky her whole life. She’d also been the only paladin who wasn’t the same race as the others. He only knew that because the others hadn’t had tails like her. Nyma was panicking slightly, he understood it though, they had already called Prorock’s underling Thace back and told him they had the lion. Rolo took a deep breath and turned to Beezer. 

“You and Nyma stay here, see what you can salvage, maybe we can get the pod running before Prorock and his lackies show up. I’m going to make a call.” Nyma caught his arm.

“What are you doing?” Rolo huffed out a breath at his friend. 

“Hopefully saving out lives.” Rolo made his way back inside their rig, it was mostly trashed, the red paladin knew her way around a laser. He sighed, their coms were still intact and at the moment that was all he needed. He took a deep breath and hailed the same frequency he’d called when he’d had the blue lion in his cargo bay. Telling them he no longer had the lion almost got him hung up on, but he managed to catch the man’s interest at the last second. 

“I do have information on where they’re going though.” The underling stayed on the line as he told them everything the paladins had said about the Balmera and the Balmeran named Shay. Rolo nodded as he finished. 

“Oh, and one more thing, if you call off the ships headed my way.” Thace raised an eyebrow. The two stared each other down for a moment before someone behind Thace nodded. 

“The troops on route to your location have been diverted. What is this piece of information.” Rolo smiled to himself, they would live another day. 

“One of the Paladins kept her face hidden, but she flies, and fights, like a Galra.” That startled Thace but he collected himself quickly and cut off the call. He relayed the information to Prorock who frowned and shook his head. 

“The scavenger scum has no idea what he’s talking about. He’s probably never even seen a real female Galra. Divert as many troops as we can to Balmera Vox Nine.” Thace saluted him and went about carrying out his orders. At the back of his mind though he was thinking. 

She had been on Sendek’s ship when it went down. It was possible, very possible. But he pushed it aside for the moment. There was no way of knowing for sure. He would have to trust that if it was her she knew what she was doing.


	14. Something Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The castle tries to kill them, team Voltron deals with the aftermath.

It didn’t sit well with Kathy that Sendak was still alive. The idea of using the castle to interrogate him was clever but there was no way to tell if it would really work or not. She preferred a much more direct method of interrogation but Allura put her foot down against it. So instead she was taking out her aggressions against the training gladiator. She was working her way up the ranks of the simulations, determined to catch up to Allura, surpass her if she could. 

“Run program three.” The gladiator squared back up and they traded blows for a moment. She’d already gone through the first two programs before this. She could practically hear Ulaz telling her that she was working too hard again, she was going to hurt herself. She flipped over the gladiator and smacked the staff out of its hand with the flat of her blade. 

“End training program.” She expected the whirr of the mechanics in the robot to stop, as they had done every other time. But it didn’t. Instead the light in the center of the robots head went from blue to red and the gladiator dropped into a fighting stance. Kathy backed away as fast as she could. 

“End training program!” She shouted it but nothing happened. A blade flashed out from the gladiators arm and she quickly brought her bayard up, parrying the blow. She struck out at it with all her strength and growled as it barely moved. It forced her back towards the wall, it was trying to corner her. This was not something that would show her mercy, it was trying two kill her. Well two could play that game. She ducked under the droids arm, sliding on her knees across the floor, slashing at the robots back as she went, but even that didn’t slow it down. She raced for the door slamming into the button to open it and slamming it closed behind her. For an instant she allowed herself a breath until the droids blade wedged itself through the door. Kathy took off down the hall before the gladiator could get all the way out of the training room. She hated to admit it but she might need some help defeating this thing. She was too tired from having run through two training programs back to back to face it alone. 

She bolted down a hall she wasn’t too familiar with towards the sounds of Lance shouting. She had been hoping that he might have his bayard but he seemed to be in even more trouble than she was. He was banging his fist ineffectually against the door to the airlock. Kathy had a few moments before the droid caught up.

“What are you doing?” Lance glared at her through the door. 

“The castle is trying to kill me!” He shouted as she ducked avoiding the Gladiator’s blade.

“I know how you feel.” The countdown was running out. If she didn’t do something in the next few seconds Lance would be sucked out into space. She couldn’t allow that. Voltron needed him and the universe needed Voltron. So she thought fast, smashing the droid into the door and slamming the button to open it with the tip of her sword. Dragging Lance back into the ship against the draw of space was exceedingly difficult but she somehow managed it before slamming the door closed again, glad the gladiator had been dragged out into the void instead of Lance. The two of them collapsed onto the floor for a moment, gasping for breath. 

“What the hell was that?” Kathy shook her head at Lance’s question still trying to catch her breath. 

“No idea. Honestly glad it’s not just me the castle seems to be trying to kill though. We need to find the others.” Lance nodded and took Kathy’s hand racing down the hall in search of the other paladins. He didn’t drop her hand until they found Pidge and Hunk in the hanger bay. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Listening to Allura have to say goodbye to her father wasn’t something any of the Paladins relished. They had lost one of their only allies to the corruption of the Galra crystal, which they jettisoned into space at the first opportunity. There was no way they were risking any of that again. Shiro wouldn’t look at Kathy in the face since he’d jettisoned Sendak into space, a move she was fully on board with as long as they were sure it would kill him, which they really weren’t. Lance wouldn’t go near any of the airlocks by himself and Allura had disappeared into her room, tears she’d probably thought she was hiding shining in her eyes. Hunk made his way into the kitchen. It was still a mess. He sighed and found something he could call a mop. He didn’t notice someone had joined him until a purple and pink hand opened the trashcan for him. He smiled at Kathy as she helped him clean up the kitchen. He sighed as he set about making a snack. 

“Something wrong?” Kathy asked, hopping up onto the counter, her tail swishing back and forth. Hunk nodded. 

“I never thought I’d been in a space war, attacked by food in a giant magical science castle full of mechanical lions. You know?” Kathy’s ear twitched. 

“I never imagined Voltron was real but war’s all I’ve ever know Hunk. I grew up in it. I’ll probably die in it. So not really is what I guess I’m saying.” Hunk frowned at her pronouncement. 

“You are just a ray of sunshine and positivity aren’t you?” She frowned at him looking confused. He shook his head. 

“Nevermind, here try this.” He held out a spoonful of his latest culinary experiment. She blinked at him for a moment then accepted the spoon. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

It took Coran several ticks to find Shiro. The black Paladin was sitting by himself on one of the observation decks. He was staring out at the vast reaches of space. Coran cleared his throat and Shiro jumped slightly. He laughed lightly.

“Sorry Coran, didn’t see you there.” Coran shook his head. 

“No need to apologize. I’m just checking up on everyone. We all seem a bit shaken up after that last ordeal.” Shiro nodded. 

“How are the others?” Coran shrugged lightly.

“I came to check on you first.” Shiro frowned at the mans words. 

“Why?” 

“Because you seemed to be affected worst by this. You wont look Number Four in the face and you did just kill someone, most likely. I thought it would be best to check on you first.” Shiro nodded slightly staring down at his artificial hand. 

“This isn’t the first time I’ve killed someone Coran.” Coran nodded.

“All the same. You’re shaken up. I’ve been told I’m a fantastic listener.” Shiro remained silent for a few moments flexing his fake arm. 

“He… the voice I heard couldn’t have really been Sendak. It had to have been something else, King Alfor’s corrupted AI right?” Coran nodded. Shiro continued. “That’s what I thought. I think he, it, was trying to turn me against Kathy, against all of us. It said she’s hiding something. Not to be surprised if I wake up with a knife in the back.” Coran frowned. 

“Do you trust her? You’ve been in each others heads, all of you, to form Voltron. Did you feel anything that would lead you to believe that she would betray anyone?” Shiro shook his head. 

“No just the opposite really. But… I think there might be something she’s not telling us. I don’t know why I think so but it’s just this feeling I’ve got.” Coran nodded. 

“Everyone has their secrets, things they don’t want their friends to know. I don’t think hers will harm us. If they would I don’t think you would be able to form Voltron with her.” Shiro nodded at Coran and smiled slightly. 

“You’re right. Thanks Coran.” Coran smiled and nodded.

“Of course, got to keep up moral around here somehow! Now I’m off to cheer up the others.” Shiro stood. 

“I’ll join you.”


	15. First Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathy tries to do something no Blade has ever managed and gets doused in Quintessence for her troubles.

This whole thing had probably been a bad idea. Letting Allura and Shiro go onto the ship to get the information they needed was probably a worse idea but they would have never gotten away with having two Galra looking females in the same place, plus the uniforms would have never fit Kathy. She was tiny by Galra standards, which was a fact she was now using to her full advantage as she slunk along the shadows following the raw quintessence and the druid down the hall. She was terrified if she was honest with herself. She’d never thought she was going to see a Druid in person. She had hoped she never would. 

The other Blades told her stories of these creatures when she was a child. They were towering figures even for Galra, no one was sure if that’s what they were though. No one knew exactly how many of them there were but they were lead by one who constantly stood by Zarkons side, running the experiments that were said to destroy any who participated, save the druids themselves. The Blades had been trying to get their hands on the raw quintessence for years to see if they could find a way to shut it down without having to blow engines up. So far none of them had ever come close. But if she could get into the room where it was kept, maybe she could get that sample. She leapt through the door at the last second slipping easily from shadow to shadow. This was what she’d been trained for. 

She had always been a spy first and foremost. An excellent fighter yes, but small, not as strong as her uncles or the other younger Blades. Even Regis could easily beat her with his strength, but no one could match her ability to blend into the shadows, to disappear unnoticed into a crowd. She breathed slow and steady despite the desperate beating of her heart. 

Slipping into the room itself wasn’t too difficult. Watching the process of the… well she wasn’t sure what was happening to the quintessence but she didn’t really have time to contemplate it. She blinked and the druid disappeared. Kathy swore under her breath whirling looking for the druid, only to find it towering over her from behind. Before she had time for more than a cut off scream she was blasted backwards off her feet by a bolt of purple lightning that tore into her armor like it was paper. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Shiro knew that they were in trouble when the alarms began to blare declaring that he’d been recognized by the computers as a prisoner. They had to get off the ship and out of the area now. He didn’t count on the sentries being faster than the last group. He didn’t count on Allura bodily throwing him into the escape pod, forcing him to leave without her. 

He banged on the screen trying to get the pod to turn around, he had to go back for her. But he couldn’t. The Green Lion snatched up his pod before he could figure out how to turn the pod around. Something was going on down on the base as well as the ship Allura was still on sped off into hyperspace. He stepped into the Green Lion with the others and they stared at him. 

“Where’s Allura?” It was Lance who asked the question that made Shiro flinch. 

“She sacrificed herself to save me.” He was about to look down at his shoes when he noticed they were missing more than one person. 

“Wait, where’s Kathy?” Pidge shook her head. 

“We couldn’t raise her on coms. We have no idea where she is, just that she’s still on the base. Somewhere.” Shiro swore. Coran’s voice came over the com system.

“Paladins the Red Lion just left its hanger on its own!”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kathy knew she’d lost the fight when she was slammed across the bridge into another large tube of raw quintessence. Like the last one this one cracked with her impact, yellow liquid spilling out across her arm and shoulder, both of which had been exposed by the druids lightning. She howled in pain, it felt like pouring hot coals over frostbite. The sound of rending metal ripped through the room as the Druid approached her, preparing to strike again. Then a large slab of metal landed on top of the towering figure and Kathy looked up into the face of the Red Lion. If she didn’t know better she would have said the lion was chastising her for being reckless and not turning back when she had confirmed that the druid was something she couldn’t take on alone. She ignored the feeling though and ran into the lions cockpit. She didn’t even notice that the arm that had been drenched in quintessence was fully pink, not splotched with purple like normal. 

She took off quickly, firing a few well placed shots into the room she’d just left after the lion assured her that the other paladins weren’t on the station anymore. The chain reaction was quite spectacular, explosion after explosion rocking the base.

“That’ll put a dent in supply lines.” Her coms come to life. 

“Kathy, you alright?” 

“I’ll live. What about everyone else?” Kathy almost didn’t here the reply as she turned red towards the castle ship and stopped short noticing the difference in her arm for the first time. Her skin was all the same on her arm and shoulder that had been doused in quintessence. She’d never seen it like that. Sure she could go fully Galra but this was different. Her claws were gone on her hand, replaced with nails like Pidge’s, the skin all smooth and pink. It shouldn’t be possible. She’d never been able to shift the other way, only ever fully Galra or somewhere in between Galra and human. But even as she blinked at her arm the still slightly shimmering liquid on her skin vanished and the regular splotches of purple returned, her claws lengthened again and she stared flexing her hand. Only then did she realize that Lance was still talking. 

“Wait, say that again. You… You cut out.” She wasn’t even sure why she was lying to him but she had no chance to think about it as his words finally cut through her surprise. 

“Allura was still on the ship when it went to hyperspeed, to Zarkon’s central command. We lost the Princess.” Kathy let out a litany of curses that would have made Kolivan have her running drills till she dropped.


	16. Suicide Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathy recalls the motto of the Blades as the others debate how to rescue Allura. She wonders if they should.

The bridge was awash with noise. Everyone was arguing about what would be the smartest way to go in to save Allura. Kathy’s tail twitched. She’d already been through so much with these people and still they barely knew her. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

‘What do you mean? Thace I don’t understand.’ The tall Galra ruffled her hair and sighed. 

‘An opportunity has arisen, and the knowledge I could collect for the Blade outweighs the risk to my life.’ Kathy shook her head. 

‘If you get found out they’ll kill you, they’ll torture you and then they’ll kill you. How is that outweighed by what we might learn that we don’t already know! There’s not even a guarantee that you’ll learn anything we don’t already know!’ Thace shook his head slightly. 

‘You’re still so young kittling, but one day you will come to understand. You know the words all Blades must live by.’ Kathy nodded, golden eyes fixed on her feet. 

‘Knowledge or death.’ Thace nodded at her words. 

‘We live by this so that though one may die all may learn, benefit from the sacrifices before them. Grow and be better, be a step closer to stopping Zarkon.’ Kathy nodded. 

‘It’s not fair. First Ulaz, now you. I’m never gonna see you again am I?’ Thace gently rubbed behind her ear. 

‘War is never fair kittling. And there is every possibility that that’s the case yes. Every time we leave this base may be our last, but we do it so others can live, and maybe someday live in peace.’ Kathy nodded and Thace nuzzled the crown of her head for a moment. ‘You have passed the trials kittling, started missions of your own. Someday you will understand.’

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

An angered shout from Lance pulled Kathy back to the present and out of her reverie. She growled as Coran accused Shiro of losing Allura. The sound, which she hadn’t made in front of the others before, made them all freeze. 

“Standing around blaming does nothing! It’s childish and idiotic! So is going after Allura.” The rest of the paladins froze and Coran stared at her, his expression somewhere between shock and anger. “This is war, people sacrifice themselves for each other all the time. People die all the time. We need to think of the greater good, not what’s best of us, not what we want but what would benefit everyone out there still under Zarkon’s control.” Pidge opened her mouth but Kathy didn’t let her speak. 

“If we go after her we are flying the universes most powerful weapon into the hands of the most dangerous being alive. He will take Voltron and he will use it to roll over the known and unknown universe. If he gets his hands on this weapon he will never stop.” Silence followed her pronouncement. Lance was the first one to stutter out a reply. 

“We have to go after her. Just because you’re too afraid to do what’s right…” She cut him off with a glare. 

“Afraid? Yes I’m afraid. Afraid that in trying to save one life we end up dooming an untold number of lives. This is a suicide mission. We go in there we will never come out alive.” She turned on her heel and stalked off the bridge and back to the armory. Her armor was still severely damaged from her fight with the druid. She placed it back into the tube and it began to repair itself. She heard a noise behind her and turned to find Hunk standing there a small first aid kit in his hands. He tried to smile sheepishly but didn’t quite manage it. 

“You looked hurt. Thought I might be of more use here then with Pidge and Lance arguing over which way in is the least suicidal.” Kathy shook her head but let Hunk run the scanner over her arm. It didn’t feel hurt. Her lip had even healed after she had been doused in Quintessence. It shouldn’t have been possible but here she sat. Hunk checked her over anyway, as he did he spoke. 

“Coran’s wound really tight about this. I mean we’re all worried about Allura but she’s all he has left you know.” Kathy nodded. “And Shiro refuses to leave her behind.” 

“Guilt is going to get him killed.” Hunk shook his head as he set the scanner to one side. 

“I don’t think it’s guilt. I think that might be like a tiny part of it but we’re all we’ve got out here. We’ve kind of become a little family and we can’t leave anybody. No man left behind.” Kathy raised an eyebrow. 

“That’s a really stupid saying.” Hunk shrugged. 

“Maybe it is when all you know is war. But no one should have to live like that. That’s no way to grow up, knowing any moment could be your last. And we know it could be. But we have to at least try.” Kathy stared at him for a minute as the tube behind her reopened, her armor completely fixed. “You’re probably right, it’s probably a really stupid idea to go after her, but we’re doing it anyway.” Hunk stilled his trembling hands and straightened slightly. “We’re doing it anyway because it’s the right thing to do. But we need your help. We can’t do it without you.” Kathy stared at him for a moment. 

“Humans care very much.” Hunk nodded. 

“And maybe it’s silly and optimistic but it’s what we do. So are you coming?” Kathy sighed and turned, pulling her armor out of the tube. 

“We’re a team. We watch each other’s backs.” Hunk grinned as Kathy put her armor back on and the two of them headed back to the bridge.


	17. A Chance To End It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathy goes head to head with Zarkon to buy the others time.

Kathy knew it was foolish, stupid beyond belief. But they were losing. The Black Lion wasn’t responding to Shiro. She had known from the minute the barrier went up they were done for but Hunk was right, they had to try anyway. They had done surprisingly well against the fleets. Better than she would have ever guessed. Even individually they had done very well. But something had managed to tear Voltron apart with no input from its paladins. Going after Shiro in the first place was probably stupid but she wasn’t about to allow the Black Lion to be taken. Seeing Zarkon land in front of the downed black lion with no suit and step towards it was enough. 

“Kathy! Don’t Zarkon is too powerful for you to take on alone!” Kathy ignored Coran. Knowledge or death, if she had to die to find out if Zarkon could be killed so be it. She blasted at him but it was deflected by a shield that shrank into a device that almost looked like a Bayard. But it couldn’t be. That would mean…

“You may have a lion, but its powers are weak in your fledgling hands.” The blast of energy from his newly formed sword smacked into the Red Lion and Kathy let out a cry of pain as alarms blared. She quickly got it back under control. Zarkon glared at the lion. “You cannot stop me. The Black Lion will finally be returned to its original Paladin.” Kathy filed that away for later, assuming she got a later. 

 

If Kathy was honest, she didn’t remember a whole lot of the details from the fight. They stopped mattering, becoming superseded by the need to survive. She was smacked into the command ship and the main lights on her console flickered. If the others were calling out to her she couldn’t hear it. She had shut off her coms to stop Coran yelling at her to retreat. She knew she was going to fail in this fight, she didn’t need constant reminders of that. She was trying to win yes but she was buying Shiro the time he needed to get back to Black. The longer it took for Zarkon to kill her the more of a chance the others had to escape. As Zarkon approached her she growled in defiance and felt something shift. A console flickered to life and a blast of light fired, not from the Lions mouth but from a cannon on its back. Kathy wasn’t going to question it. It seemed like it would be her last option. 

Her other weapons hadn’t even phased him but the cannon blasted him back off his feet. But it didn’t buy her enough time. This time when he threw the red Lion he threw it through one of the rings of his ship. She screamed, fear frustration and pain mixing as the lights of the red lion went out completely. A voice echoed around her, likely the last one she’d ever hear. 

“You fight like a Galra solder. But not for long.” With that he lunged a sword the size of a small fighter pod in his hands aimed right for the cockpit of the red lion. Kathy closed her eyes ready for the final blow, hoping against hope she had bought the others the time they needed. Then she was moving again. She opened her eyes and saw the Black Lion, back up and running. It had blasted Zarkon back and picked up her lion in its claws. 

“I got you Kat.” She was in shock. She hadn’t been expecting a rescue. The quick escape back to the Castle was a blur but they still had a problem. The Shield was in place, stopping them from creating a wormhole and escaping. Everything they had done was all for nothing. Kathy closed her eyes for a moment. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Thace hadn’t believed his eyes when he saw how the Red Lion flew. There was only one person in the known universe that could fly like that. And Voltron was real, who would have guessed. All the times Kathy had requested the story of Voltron as a child, he couldn’t even begin to count. And now by all appearances she had tamed the red lion. 

His fingers flew across the keys of the shield controls as he smiled to himself. They had always said the kittling was meant for more than just being a Blade. She was too good at heart, to empathetic. But a Paladin of Voltron? He smiled again as he pulled the lever and the Sheild began to blink out of existence. He made it back to his post with no suspicion at all and watched as the Castle of the Lions made its entry into the wormhole. His heart nearly dropped through the floor when the Witch’s magic blasted the wormhole, turning it from a calming blue to an angry purple. The wormhole closed and the Castle vanished. He could only pray the kittling was still alive.


	18. Stranded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and Kathy are stranded on a slightly hostile alien planet.

Kathy screamed as the castle shook and she felt Red’s feet leave the ground without either of their input. She could hear Shiro crying out too as both the Red and Black lions were swept out of the castle into the corrupted wormhole. She heard Lance cry out their names before they passed into the wall of the wormhole. Kathy screamed barely aware of Shiro doing the same as blue and red electricity coursed through her lion and into her. She blacked out as she made out the blurry outline of a grey planet. She didn’t feel them crash miles apart.

She had no idea how long it took her to wake up. But when she did she groaned. Her head hurt, like all the blood had rushed to it. Then she realized she was upside down, still strapped in to her chair. She swore slightly as she tried to unbuckle herself but couldn’t get it unjammed so she let herself shift into her full Galra form and sliced through the strap with her claws, she didn’t want to risk cutting herself on her sword. She dropped down to the space where her console normally appeared. She rubbed her head as her ears twitched under her helmet. 

“Red? You ok?” She could still feel the presence of the Red lion at the back of her mind but she felt exhausted, almost as tired as her paladin. But Kathy didn’t have time to be tired. Her suit was damaged, from her fight with the druid, luckily by some miracle she’d made it out alive. She was so sure they were done for when the shield had gone up around the entire station. But it had gone down almost as quickly. She had an idea about that but she needed to know where she was first. She reached out again with her mind to the Red Lion. 

“Is it ok for me to be outside with my suit damaged?” When she got the go ahead from the lion, in the form of the exit at the top of the lions head opening, she scrambled out of the lion and patted her on the nose. 

“Alright girl, you rest. I need to see if I can’t figure out where we are, see if anyone else is here.” The lion almost seemed to nod before she felt the presence in her mind fade, not entirely but it was as if the lion had fallen asleep. She sighed and spoke.

“Hello? Shiro? Lance? Hunk? Pidge? Anybody?” Echoing silence came back to her. She knew how to handle being on her own. She was good at it but the silence ate at her as she began to scout the area, trying to see if anyone else was nearby, and gather supplies as she did. The most important at the moment was water, drinkable water. She had wandered about fifty feet away from the lion when her helmet started picking up a staticy call. She set off at top speed in the direction of the call. As she got closer the call got less staticy. She heard a voice she was elated to hear. 

“This is Shiro, calling anyone… Anybody there?” Kathy didn’t stop running but she spoke.

“Shiro!” A sigh of relief sounded over the com system. 

“Oh thank god. For a second there I thought I was alone. Good to hear a friendly voice Kat.” Kat smiled to herself as her com system finally synced with the targeting system in her helmet, some of the wires must have come loose when she and Red crashed.

“Likewise Shiro. You alright?” There was a dry chuckle. 

“Yeah. Takes more than a drop from the upper atmosphere into a hard pan surface at what I’m guessing was about twenty five meters per second squared and a glowing alien wound to keep me down. How are you?” Kathy’s steps faltered then she was running faster. 

“Did you say glowing?” Shiro hummed an affirmative, Kathy swore in Galran. 

“Why is that worse than it seems?” Shiro sounded almost resigned, and very, very tired. 

“It’s pretty bad. Do not fall asleep! Red’s busted, I think she’ll be ok but I’m headed your way. If you’re not in Black try to get back to her. But you need to keep talking. You need to stay awake.” Shiro sounded like he was smiling slightly even if it sounded like it hurt to talk.

“Careful, you might start to scare me talking like that.” Kathy scoffed slightly as she reached a cliff and paused to take stock. 

“I’m not trying to scare you, I’m trying to keep you alive. A wound like that needs to be treated as quickly as possible.” Shiro grunted and Kathy pulled her Bayard. 

“Yeah, I kinda figured. Um, could you maybe step on it?” Kathy frowned, she was getting better at earth sayings but this one wasn’t familiar.

“Step on?” But she didn’t get any farther as Shiro cried out. 

“Shiro!” Kathy shouted. Shiro groaned. 

“I’ve got company. I think I’m safe for the moment but I can’t get back to the Black Lion.” Kathy swore. She thought for a second before kicking the ground in frustration the rocks cracked and a geyser of water poured forth, steaming with heat and smelling of salt. Kathy smiled and summoned her Bayard.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes, if this works.” Shiro sounded like he was frowning.

“If it doesn’t?” Kathy peeked over the edge of the ravine.

“I plummet maybe two hundred feet with nearly no fuel in my jet pack.” Before Shiro could do more than groan out a slight protest Kathy stepped up to the edge of the cliff and slashed into the rock around her. The water poured forth and blasted the piece of rock she was standing on out over the ravine. She screamed as the rock crumbled under her feet and her pack tried to shoot her forwards. She just managed to drive her sword into the rocks before she would have plummeted to her death. Red made a noise of protest at the back of her mind but she shook it off letting her claws slip out again and digging them into the soft rock of the wall. 

“Kathy, please tell me you didn’t just die. Lance would kill me if you died.” Kathy let out a breathless laugh as she let her Bayard shrink back into its inert form and then slipped it back into its holster holding onto the rockface with nothing but her claws on one hand for a moment before beginning to climb. 

“Nope, still kicking, haven’t climbed like this in a while. What about you? How big is this company you mentioned?” Shiro groaned and Kathy thought she heard rocks shifting.

“Shiro?” No answer. Kathy swore in Galran again as she scaled the cliff as panic grabbed her heart. She raced across the cliff and down into a crater where in rested the Black Lion. She looked around, she didn’t see any sign of Shiro. He still wasn’t responding to his coms. She turned to the Black Lion. Unlike Red, Black was sitting up much like the lions did in their bays at the castle. Shiro’s voice crackled over the coms again, he was screaming.

“I know I’m not your paladin but Shiro needs our help! Please!” It took a moment but the eyes of the Black Lion lit up and it bowed to her letting her board it. They flew directly to Shiro landing over him as the Black Lion roared and the creatures scattered. Kathy raced out of the Black Lion pulling Shiro up. 

“We need to get you out of here now!” She picked Shiro up and carried him into the Black Lion before flying over to where the Red Lion was still laying. Shiro was staring at Kathy from his spot in her lap. She picked him up and took him out of the lion when they landed.

“Wait here.” She slipped into the Red lion and grabbed the med kit from behind her chair. She hopped back out and patted Red on the nose. Then she stepped over to Shiro. Kneeling down next to him she pulled out some bandages and dug around looking for a scalpel but couldn’t find one. She swore to herself as she pulled her Blade, leaving it in its dagger form for now.

“Not gonna lie, this is gonna hurt a lot.” Shiro nodded and raised an eyebrow at her when she held out a strip of bandage to him. It was folded over several times making it quite thick. “Bite down on this.” Shiro opened his mouth and bit down on the bandage. Kathy whispered an apology and sliced into Shiro’s wound pressing hard. He grunted in pain around the bandage but she wasn’t paying attention. She was watching the glow drain out of the cut she’d sliced into. She did the same thing to the second cut before bandaging his wounds and apologizing profusely as she helped him take the bandage out of his mouth. 

“Why was that necessary?” Kathy sat down with a sigh.

“The wound was contaminated, something about the druids is wrong. My uncle used to tell me how bad wounds they inflict could get. How sometimes if their poison stayed in the body it could infect the mind. Better safe than sorry.” Shiro nodded shuddering at the thought of Haggar poking around in his brain. He smiled at her. 

“You really are the most street smart out of all of us. You know more about this war than even Coran and Allura.” He groaned in pain again, before he kept talking. He was feeling very lightheaded. “That’s why if anything happens to me I want you to lead Voltron.” Kathy stared at him for a second before bursting out laughing. 

“And they say Lance is the funny one.” Shiro shook his head and pulled himself up into more of a sitting position. 

“I’m serious. If something happens to me, you should lead Voltron. You know the most about what we’re fighting. Allura and Coran know basics but you’ve been out there fighting for years. You know what it’s like on the ground. You know how to teach fighting skills. We just gotta work on those diplomatic skills.” Kathy sighed and pulled off her helmet letting her ears out to twitch in the salt filled breeze. 

“Yeah, cause the universe wants a Galra in charge of Voltron.” Shiro frowned. 

“You’re more than just a Galra, you’re my friend. You’re a Paladin of Voltron. You are an amazing fighter. You’d make a fantastic leader.” Kathy set down her helmet and shook her head. 

“I don’t know why we’re even talking about this. You’re not gonna die. I’m not gonna let you die here Shiro.” She stood before Shiro could speak. Her ears were twitching and her tail was swishing in the way that meant she was upset. 

“I’m gonna see if I can’t find something to burn for a fire. We need to keep you warm. The lions will let me know if you’re in trouble.” Without another word she stalked off. Shiro frowned, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d pushed a button he shouldn’t have.


	19. Back On Board

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro recovers from his wounds and remembers something about his rescue that Kathy may wish he didn't.

Kathy supported Shiro as they made their way back onboard. She had flown Red back to the castle and Black had done as she’d hoped and followed them setting down in its hanger. She patted Red on the nose. 

“Good Kitty.” A purring filled her brain and she smiled before turning to the others. Pidge was here, good. Allura and Coran, all accounted for. But no Lance or Hunk. That worried her. She and Coran rushed Shiro to the med bay leaving Allura and Pidge to talk in the hanger. Once they had him changed and set in the healing pod Coran turned to her. 

“Armor off now.” Kathy shook her head. 

“We need to find Hunk and Lance.” Coran stopped her with a hand on the shoulder. 

“You need to sit down. You never got checked out for your fight on the station, let alone after your fight with Zarkon. Sit down.” Kathy shook her head. She almost made it past Coran but before she knew what was happening something was slapped on her wrist and she was yanked backwards. She looked down and spotted the same cuffs that Coran had used to chain the Paladins together during training now sticking her to the medical table. 

“Allura and Pidge will find Hunk and Lance. You and Shiro are both hurt so you’re both getting treatment. Please sit down.” Kathy shook her head at him but sat down as she really had no other choice. 

“You are quite sneaky for someone over ten thousand years old.” He laughed lightly as he scanned her. She took off the armor that she could with her arm chained and Coran nodded. He treated her bruised ribs and sprained muscles. Luckly she didn’t need time in a pod for minor injuries. He gently rubbed a salve on her face. 

“These should heal soon. Now you can go help Allura and Pidge.” Coran released the cuff and Kathy smiled slightly. She switched clothes and set her armor in its pod. Then she made her way to the bridge. She leaned over Pidge’s shoulder. 

“How are we doing?” Pidge shook her head slightly. 

“Well no luck so far. Or at least nothing that could be from them. We’ve gotten a few more distress calls. But no signal from either Lions.” Kathy took her seat and flicked through a few of the signals. She frowned. 

“This planet is uninhabitable.” Pidge frowned. 

“What do you mean?” 

“It’s one giant polar icecap. That planet was hit with a meteor almost a century ago. It froze solid. Salt water oceans frozen in nearly three months. It was a scientific phenomenon, a few people did papers on it. No one could figure out what was in the meteor that caused it because none of the equipment could get through the ice.” Allura seemed to think for a moment. 

“The lions could be powerful enough to break that ice, especially at the rate they were thrown from the castle. The signal there appears to be coming from underneath the ice anyway. It could be that the species that is sending it is aquatic. But the signal isn’t a distress signal at all it’s a welcoming?” Kathy shook her head. 

“I’d say that makes it more likely. I mean think about it, what society would roll out the welcome wagon knowing that the Galra would likely be the one answering it?” Pidge asked as they went back over the signal. Kathy nodded. 

“We should check it out.” Pidge nodded. 

“I’ll go. Red’s still recovering and Shiro is out of commission for a bit.” Kathy nodded. She had yet to tell anyone about her brief flight in the Black Lion. She wasn’t sure she should. So instead she headed to the med bay. Shiro was still in the pod. Kathy eyed the black v above the pod. She wasn’t sure how she felt about all this now. 

 

Zarkon had been the Black Paladin. Over ten thousand years ago. How was that even possible. She had a theory that Haggar, the Witch and her Druids had to have something to do with it. Speaking of the druids, she flexed her hand and glanced at it. How had it been possible? She’d always been taught that exposure to raw quintessence was deadly, or at least horribly disfiguring no matter what. But it hadn’t been to her. It had reverted her arm to completely human, something she’d never been able to do on her own. She couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she could try again. Maybe after they found Lance and Hunk. She flexed her hand again and sighed. 

“We found them! It was them!” Kathy sighed in relief as Allura’s voice came over the com system. At least they hadn’t been separated long. Soon Hunk and Lance joined her in the med bay. Coran checked them over while Allura and Pidge talked to the queen of the mer-people. They left a signal with them and made their way off to another sector, one full of uninhabitable planets where they could repair the castle and wait until Shiro was out of the pod to talk about their next move. 

 

“He looks like he’s having a nightmare.” Kathy nodded at Lance. 

“After everything he’s been through he’s bound to have a few. Who doesn’t?” Lance glanced at her. She almost wished she hadn’t said anything. He looked curious about what she had nightmares about but she wasn’t about to tell him everything she had ever seen. She still couldn’t believe how unexperienced they were at war. It gave her some hope that maybe the father she’d never known might still be alive. If most of Earth didn’t know war. But she didn’t know that for sure. She sighed as Lance nodded and sat down near her. A few hours later the pod opened and Shiro fell forwards with a cry, seemingly having been woken suddenly woken from a nightmare. Kathy caught him and immediately regretted it as he swung at her. His nightmare addled mind seeing the purple ears and jumping straight to conclusions. She ducked away letting go of him as he gasped. Hunk jumped forwards and steadied him. He didn’t swing at the yellow paladin. 

Kathy knew better than to take it personally but it stung. Hunk managed to calm Shiro down and help him realize that he was safe. He turned to Kathy and she saw horror dawning on his face as he realized what he’d done. She shook her head. 

“It’s fine Shiro.” Shiro shook his head. 

“I’m sorry.” Kathy shook her head. Lance helped Hunk get Shiro to a seat. Pidge stepped forwards looking a bit nervous.

“What were you dreaming about?” Coran handed Shiro a bowl full of streaming space goo. He was shaking slightly. It took him a minute to reply. 

“I was dreaming about how I escaped, how I got into the pod that took me back to Earth. There was a Galra, a male Galra. He rescued me.” They all stared at him. The other Paladins looked almost skeptical but he caught a flash of something cross Kathy’s face. It went by too fast for him to tell what it was before he expression fell back into its neutral position. Allura shook her head. 

“That’s…” She glanced at Kathy, “highly unlikely Shiro.” Shiro nodded. 

“I get that but it’s what happened. They were doing some kind of experiment and he killed the others in the room and set me loose. He put some coordinates in my arm. Some kind of code. He said… He said the Blade of Marmora were on my side.” Kathy stiffened almost imperceptibly, again only Shiro noticed it. 

“What’s the Blade of Marmora?” Allura shook her head at Pidge. The youngest girl turned to Kathy. “Any ideas?” 

“No. I’ve never heard of the Blade of Marmora.” If Kathy wasn’t lying Shiro would cut off his only good arm. But he refused to call her out in front of the others. He gave her a significant look as she Allura and Pidge left the room so he could change, they would be talking about this later.


	20. Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro privately confronts Kathy about lying to everyone.

Kathy avoided Shiro for the rest of the day cycle on the ship. She seemed to know he wouldn’t call her out in front of the others. So she hung back at the edge of the group, near Coran while Pidge searched the code in Shiro’s arm. She shrugged when Pidge asked for her opinion on the Galra coding. She kept silent. When Pidge found the sequence of repeating numbers she stayed quiet. She only spoke up when Allura asked her a question. 

“It’s been ten thousand years, I don’t know what could be waiting for us. Kathy, what about you?” She stepped up to the map and studied it. 

“The Thaldicon system is a dead zone. Shipping lanes and ships in general avoid it. Even smugglers won’t use it often if at all.” Lance raised an eyebrow. 

“Why?”

“Xanthorium clusters. The whole place is full of them. Big ones. Brush one of them and it will blow your ship out of space. They aren’t kind to navigational computers either. They also move like regular meteors. Constantly crashing into each other and exploding. It’s a navigational hell hole.” At least she was being honest about that. But there was a stiffness in her shoulders that Shiro alone recognized because he had seen it before. The others hadn’t seen her undercover with the other Galra. This was that same attitude, one that in different circumstances could be mistaken for a hardened well trained military stance. She wasn’t telling them everything, but he refused to sew suspicion among the others. He wouldn’t accuse her of anything. But he would be talking to her. Even if she didn’t want to. As the others argued about the best course of action, and the fact that Zarkon had been the last Black Paladin, he gave her a look. Her tail twitched and her ears flattened slightly. Allura made the final call as usual. 

“Fine, we’ll check out the area. But I don’t trust this. The Galra cannot be trusted.” She quickly backtracked as she glanced at Kathy. “Present company excluded of course.” Kathy rolled her eyes. Pidge pondered how that was possible when one had no discernable pupil or iris. Shiro caught hold of Kathy’s hand before she could leave. The others continued towards the bridge, all believing that Shiro was going to give Kathy a private pep talk. That was admittedly part of the plan. 

 

“You know she doesn’t mean anything against you.” Kathy nodded. There was a pregnant pause.

“Is that everything?” Shiro shook his head and glanced around them before dragging Kathy into one of the many empty rooms with a lockable door. He locked the door behind them. 

“No. You know that’s not everything. What do you know about the Blade of Marmora?” It was the direct approach and it didn’t have the effect he was hoping it would. Instead of her sighing and speaking the tension remained in her shoulders and she blinked at him in a very convincing approximation of innocence. If she hadn’t become so relaxed around them over the past few months he would have believed her.

“I don’t know anything about the Blade of Marmora.” He frowned at her. 

“Kathy, I know you’re lying. What I don’t know is why. You’re safe here, you can trust us.”

“I know that. But I don’t know anything about this Blade thing.” Shiro sighed. 

“Ok, do you think going to the Thaldicon system is a bad idea?” Kathy remained silent for a moment. 

“That’s not my decision. I’m not in command here, you are.” She made to move past him and he grabbed her arm again. 

“Kathy, please. I need to know what’s really happening here. I trust you. I trust your judgement. You’re the right hand of Voltron for a reason. I need you to tell me if you think we’re walking into a trap or if we’re doing the right thing. I’ll let the reasons slide for now but I need to know.” Kathy was silent for another moment. 

“Tell me everything you remember about your rescue. Details.” He told her everything. 

“And he told me his name. It was Ulaz.” Kathy’s ears perked up. If the other Paladins had been in the room even they would have seen the change in her demeanor. That name meant something to Kathy. Something important. She was silent for another moment. 

“I think we should see what we find in the Thaldicon system.” 

“Do you think it’ll be dangerous?” 

“Only for Zarkon and those who follow him.” Shiro nodded. He wasn’t quite satisfied yet but as long as he knew they would be alright he was willing to take the risk. He let her leave and sighed to himself. He had a suspicion she knew exactly what the Blade of Marmora was and that she wasn’t telling him for a good reason but weather or not they were on their side or not remained to be seen. 

 

The castle was silent as they slid out of the wormhole into the Thaldicon system. So intent on their surroundings none of them noticed Kathy slip from her seat and out the door of the bridge. Coran announced that his sensors weren’t picking up anything. Shiro waited. It was a few hours before anything happened but it wasn’t outside like they had been expecting. An alarm began to blare from inside the ship.

“There’s an intruder in the ship!” It took them a minute to find him on the video screens. He was dressed in black and purple, a suit very similar to the one Kathy had been wearing when they’d first met her. 

“Suit up!” Coran nodded to them.

“Looks like Kathy’s ahead of you! She’s already on level three headed towards the intruder!” The others rushed out of the bridge, they were already in armor and had their bayards ready. Shiro had a distinct feeling that this wasn’t going to go well.


	21. Painful Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathy is reunited with one of her Uncles, and gets shot for it.

 

Kathy wasn’t sure what she was thinking. Everything hinged on this. If they could get Voltron and the Blades on the same side, working together, they would be that much closer to bringing Zarkon down for good. That all hinged on this interaction, she had to get to Ulaz first.

Lance swore as Coran kept babbling in his helmet, the Galra that had entered the ship leapt over him. He skidded around the corner and out of sight. Lance raced after him but Kathy outstripped him easily. She leapt after the taller Galra and Lance got a good look at her face. She wasn’t wearing her helmet, her hair was up for the first time since he’d met her. It was braided, the finished product wrapped once around her neck, almost hidden by the collar of her armor. Her eyes were glimmering with determination but she didn’t have her Bayard in her hand. Instead there was a slim silver dagger slipped into a sheath at her hip. He hadn’t seen it before. She disappeared around the corner and Lance followed as close behind her as he could get. 

Pidge missed as she tried to zap the Galra Kathy put a hand on her shoulder. 

“I got this.” Pidge nodded as Kathy sprinted around the corner.

 

Hunk was hiding in the hall waiting for the Galra to round the corner. He was bout to when Kathy skidded in front of him and he raised his hand to smack her aside like he had the others. Hunk took a deep breath and turned the corner shouting out a challenge. 

 

Ulaz wasn’t sure what he was expecting. A ship he’d never seen before had stopped in the area, far too close to the outpost for comfort. It had been too long since he’d set Shiro loose, but there had been so many rumors and whispers about Voltron since then. But if that were true why had they just been sitting there. Shiro had not made himself know. The paladins had made themselves know to him, all but the red, yellow and black paladins. That was until a very familiar face landed a few feet away from him. He blinked at her for a moment.

“Kittling?” It was practically a whisper. She smiled at him before a yell sounded from behind her and she turned leaping directly into the path of a blast from the yellow ones gun. Ulaz leapt forwards and caught her as she crumpled the red armor on her chest smoking. He snarled under his mask and leapt over the yellow paladin, Kathy still in his arms.

 

Hunk screamed. Kathy had stepped into his shot, crumpling under the full force of his bayard. Her armor was smoking and it looked like she was unconscious, helpless in the arms of an unknow Galra. He tried to catch up to them but the Galra kicked him hard sending him flying into the wall. He took off down the hall, Kathy gathered in his arms. 

 

Shiro was panicking slightly. According to Coran, who was watching the proceedings from the bridge, the Galra in the mask had Kathy who was currently unconscious, probably injured. She’d taken the full brunt of a shot from Hunk’s Bayard straight to the chest. If she hadn’t been wearing her armor she would likely be dead. Shiro had an idea though, he changed course and made it to the main hanger bay well ahead of the Galra. He leapt silently from one of the pods landing behind him. Kathy was starting to stir in his arms. Shiro lifted his mechanical hand to the back of the Galra’s neck.

“Put her down or I put you down.” It was a direct clear order. The Galra froze at his words and slowly turned. He gently, almost reluctantly set Kathy on the floor of the hanger. He slowly stood again and lowered his hood. His mask distorted and disappeared. Shiro blinked at him. 

“Ulaz.” 

“It is good to see you again Shiro.” Ulaz got no further though as Allura lunged from behind the cockpit of one of the pods. She leapt over the fallen paladin and slammed Ulaz against the pod. 

“Allura no!” Shiro said it at the same time it was croaked from the ground. She didn’t release Ulaz but all of them looked down Kathy was awake, there was a bit of blood at the corner of her mouth but she was alert as she stared up at Allura. 

“Don’t hurt him!” Shiro leapt forwards and helped Kathy to her feet as she tried to get up on her own. 

“He is a Galra! He snuck onto my ship and injured one of my paladins!” Kathy shook her head.

“I stepped in front of Hunk’s shot on my own.” Allura’s eyebrows shot up. 

“Why are you defending him?” 

“Because he’s my uncle.” Silence reigned.

 

Shiro took Kathy to the med bay as Allura insisted on dealing with Ulaz. He’d allowed himself to be cuffed and taken away when Shiro had assured him that Kathy would be taken care of. He helped her out of her armor as Hunk, Lance and Pidge came barreling into the room. Hunk was sobbing. Lance was confused and Pidge looked furious. Hunk helped Shiro help Kathy into the pod suit and blubbered at the massive bruising on her chest. She assured him that she’d had much worse and that it was in no way his fault that she’d stepped in front of his shot. He was still very upset as the pod closed over her. Shiro assured him that she would be fine and that she would never blame him for what had happened. 

 

“It was still stupid. Why wouldn’t she tell us that Ulaz was her uncle in the first place?” Pidge looked on edge. Shiro shrugged. 

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a common name. But it doesn’t matter right now.” 

“It really matters to me. I mean we never really questioned what she meant when she said she was part of the resistance. But maybe we should have.” Lance nodded at Pidge’s words. 

“We can not start questioning each other’s loyalties now! That is what Zarkon would want. If we start doubting each other now we won’t be able to form Voltron. If we start doubting each other we lose.” Shiro was snapping he knew that but they couldn’t fall apart now. Hunk nodded. 

“Shiro’s right. We can ask her what’s going on later. Right now we need to trust that she knows what she’s doing.” Lance finally nodded at Hunk and Pidge sighed but relented. They all glanced back at the pod. She wouldn’t be in it for long luckily. Then they walked out of the med bay off to the cell where Allura was keeping Ulaz.


	22. Into the Center

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team comes to an understanding, well most of them do.

Allura was waiting outside the cell, looking annoyed. Shiro nodded to her as he and the other paladins circled up around the door. Coran was still on the control deck. Shiro nodded and took a step into the room. The others followed close behind. Ulaz looked surprisingly relaxed for someone in handcuffs. 

“Is she going to be alright?” Ulaz looked genuinely concerned. 

“Why are you acting like you care?” Lance spoke up before anyone else had the chance. Shiro glanced at Lance as Ulaz’s bright gold eyes fixed on the blue paladin. 

“Because she’s family.” He said it like it was so simple, like it was obvious. The other paladins stared at him but Shiro nodded. 

“She mentioned that in the hanger. You’re her uncle.” Ulaz nodded at Shiro. Pidge blinked. 

“Are you the uncle she tried to contact? She tried to tell someone she was alive.” Ulaz’s eyes widened slightly and Pidge knew that he hadn’t been the one who Kathy had contacted. He also didn’t know about it before she brought it up. What exactly that meant Pidge wasn’t sure yet. 

“She’s going to be ok. She’s pretty badly bruised but she’ll be alright.” Ulaz nodded. 

“Thank you Shiro.” Allura stepped forwards arms crossed looking beyond angry. 

“What was she doing on Sendak’s ship?” Ulaz blinked at Allura. 

“Sabotage. I do not know exactly what she was sabotaging but it has always been her specialty. Everything can be explained at the base.” Shiro shot Allura a look.

“What base?” 

“It is right in front of this ship. All you have to do is fly forwards.” 

“And blow my ship to smithereens, the lions along with it. I am not an idiot.” Allura turned on her heel and stormed out of the cell. Pidge hesitated but followed the princess. Soon Shiro was the only one left in the room. 

“Will you let me know when she’s healed?” Shiro nodded at Ulaz. 

“I will. She cares about you a lot.” Ulaz let himself smile. 

“And I care for her. As I said she is family, and family is a precious thing in these dark days.” 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kathy was alone when she stepped out of the healing pod. She shook off the tiredness and quick stepped out of the med bay and up to the control room, not even bothering to change back into her armor which appeared to be missing anyway. One of the others must have taken it. That thought almost made her pause as she made her way through the empty halls. She had always known that it would be a possibility that once the others discovered the secret she had been keeping from them she would be forced to leave Voltron. She had tried to remain distant at first, to treat it like a deep cover mission but somewhere along the line the other paladins had crawled under her skin and made themselves at home. She wasn’t sure she could bring herself to leave. There was a growl at the back of her mind. 

‘Mine! My paladin, no leaving.’ She felt her eyes sting at the thought her lion had sent her but she pushed the feeling aside as she stepped onto the control deck. Coran was there already and smiled at her.

“Kathy! Good to see you awake, we weren’t expecting you out for a few more ticks. The others are down in the brig…” He trailed off as she nodded. 

“I expected them to be Coran.” They fell silent for a few minutes.

“He’s your uncle?” Kathy started at Coran’s question but nodded. 

“He helped raise me, after my mother died. He… He and my mother were close like siblings… But we aren’t blood relatives.”

“You don’t have to be to be family.” She looked up at his words, the stinging feeling was back in her eyes. He smiled at her as the other paladins piled into the room and she stiffened. Hunk spotted her first and wrapped her in a tight hug, Shiro and Lance followed shortly and Pidge sighed and joined in after a minute. 

“We weren’t expecting you to be out of the pod for another hour!” Hunk sobbed his head buried in her shoulder. Kathy blinked and felt something wet on her face. She managed to extricate a hand and found tears running down her face. Lance gently caught her face between his hands, his thumbs rubbing the tears away.

“Hey, there’s no need for tears. We get it. We talked it out. You were trying to protect your family, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Hunk, Shiro and Pidge nodded. Shiro cut across Allura who looked like she didn’t quite agree and was about to voice her displeasure. 

“We do need to know where to go from here. Ulaz invited us to the base. He says all we have to do is fly forwards.”

“Which is ridiculous!” Allura interrupted. “I will not risk my ship on the word of some Galra.” Kathy bristled slightly but made no comment, instead she completely ignored Allura and nodded to Shiro. 

“The Thaldicon base is hidden in a fold in space. If we fly forwards we’ll reach it.” Allura made to protest but this time it was Coran who cut across her. 

“Alright then Number Four, as soon as you get changed we’ll head for the base.” His tone, though light and cheerful, brooked no argument and the look he was sending Allura was one of reproach. Kathy nodded to him and stepped off the bridge. Once she was out of sight Allura whirred on Coran. 

“We don’t know what else she may have been lying about! You’re seriously going to trust…” 

“The Red Paladin! Yes I am. Not too long ago you trusted her too. Enough to send her on a diplomatic mission that almost got her killed, against her advice. Do you remember why those people turned on her? Because she’s half Galra, they didn’t care that she’s the Red Paladin and I recall you being with us then. Angry that your friend and Paladin was hurt just for being who and what she is.” Allura had gone quiet under Coran’s reproachful stare. Though there was still a light tone to his voice his words held an unmistakable bite. Shiro stepped forwards. 

“Coran is right. I’ll say it again, we can’t start mistrusting each other now. It’s what Zarkon would want. If we start to mistrust each other now we fail.” 

“And maybe the Blade of Marmora can help us against Zarkon.” Hunk said, looking hopeful.

“Ulaz should be up here for this.” Shiro said turning to the door. Allura bristled slightly but kept her silence. It didn’t take long for Shiro to collect Ulaz from his cell. The Galra was sitting there peacefully and looked a bit surprised to see Shiro back so soon. 

“Is she alright?” Shiro nodded. 

“Kathy’s fine. She’s putting her armor back on. Well her Paladin armor. She’ll meet us on the bridge.” Ulaz let out a slight sigh and frowned as Shiro pulled a key out of his pocket, unlocking the cuffs around his wrists.

“Kathy trusts you, that’s enough for me.” Ulaz rubbed his wrists slightly and nodded following Shiro up to the bridge. Kathy was already there, leaning on the wall near the door, back in her Paladin armor. She turned as the door opened and a small smile lit up her face when she spotted Ulaz. His responding smile was small as well but just as genuine. He raised his hands and framed her face in them.

Pidge had never really realized how small Kathy was in comparison to other Galra. She was average height for a human girl of her age after all. But Ulaz towered over her, his hands were so but that the tips of his fingers were near Kathy’s large catlike ears. Then one of his hands inched up and gently scratched the base of her ear and she leaned into it like Pidge leaned into a hug from her father. The younger girl scrubbed her face as she turned away from them and Coran began to movie the castle forwards toward the hidden Marmorian base.


	23. Loss and Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathy loses someone very close to her. Lance offers what comfort he can. Most of the Paladins contemplate their resident Galra.

Ulaz knew they wouldn’t win this fight. Even Voltron had its limits and he refused to lose Kathy again. He had just gotten her back after all. He turned to Kathy’s empty seat on the bridge of the castle ship. He pulled off his blade, sheath and all, and laid it down on her seat before running from the bridge and to the pod he’d taken the paladins back to the Altean craft in. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kathy’s heart dropped as the robeast swallowed the Thaldicon base whole, Ulaz still inside it. Then after a moment the beast imploded as the device for folding space was activated inside it. She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to watch her uncle die. The lights stopped and the space around them became peaceful again, save for the occasional flare of light from the crystals behind them. She remained silent as Voltron split and they all headed back to the ship. She walked out of the Red Lion mechanically, Red rumbling behind her worriedly as she headed for the bridge. Coran and Allura were waiting for them. Allura didn’t look up from her panel but Coran stepped forwards as the other Paladins piled into the room. He was holding Ulaz’s blade in his hands. 

“He left this behind before he…” Kathy nodded and took the blade, her face set as if carved from stone. 

“He knew the risks. A risk we all take.” It sounded rehearsed, empty. “Knowledge or death.” Those three words held more emotion than anything else she had said. She pressed the sheathed blade to her chest and turned on her heel, walking out of the bridge before any of them could stop her. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Lance dodged around Shiro and Hunk and followed Kathy off of the bridge. She was already out of sight so he went to the armory. She wasn’t there, neither was her armor. He frowned and began to search. He made it through the lion’s hangers before he got a dull sense of sorrow. He blinked. It didn’t feel like Blue. It was too faint to far off but it pushed at him again. He blinked glancing over at the others. He couldn’t help but think that Red looked like she was staring at him. The feeling pushed at him again and he nearly slapped himself in the head as he realized he hadn’t checked one of the most obvious places and he raced off towards the Paladin’s quarters. Red huffed out a silent sigh as Blue’s Paladin disappeared around the corner. 

The sniffling was so quiet Lance almost didn’t hear it. But hear it he did, coming from Kathy’s room. He hesitated his hand lifted as though waiting to knock. The hall was silent for a moment then he heard another sniffle and his resolve hardened and he knocked. It sounded much louder than he’d meant it to. All sound from Kathy’s room ceased and just when Lance thought she was pretending not to be there the door opened. 

She was a wreck. Her ears were drooped, there were tear tracks on her face, running over both pink skin and purple splotches of Galra fur. He would swear her eyes were bloodshot, they were more yellow than usual, at least he thought so. They were slightly puffy too. He hesitated.

“What do you want.” Her voice was flat but cracked about halfway through her question. 

“I… I was worried about you.” She shook her head scrubbing her face with one hand. 

“He knew the risks.” Lance shook his head at her.

“I know that. But he was still your family.” 

“Tears are a waste of time. He knew…” Lance cut her off again.

“Tears for family are never a waste. Someone you love just died. You’re allowed to feel something.” Her shoulders shook and he opened his arms. She dove into his embrace and sobbed into his shoulder. He carefully maneuvered the two of them into her room and sat down on her bed, arranging them so they would both be comfortable and she could keep sobbing into his shoulder. It was like she was releasing every emotion she’d never been allowed to feel before. Her tears plinked off his armor as he gently rubbed her back. He was starting to wonder if he would like any of the Blades, besides her. They seemed to have taught Kathy so much but he couldn’t help but wonder how many of the scars that littered her skin were from them and not Zarkon. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

 

Shiro found them several hours later, they were both fast asleep. Kathy’s head was pillowed on Lance’s armored chest, Lance’s hand was in her hair. Ulaz’s blade lay next to them, a few inches from Kathy’s relaxed hand. One part of him wanted to shake them awake, sleeping in that armor couldn’t be comfortable. But something else stopped him. He’d never seen Kathy sleeping before and the two of them looked so peaceful he couldn’t interrupt. So instead he backed out of the room and let the door slide closed behind him. 

 

Pidge raised an eyebrow at him as he re-entered the bridge. 

“Everything ok?” He nodded.

“We should let them sleep for a bit. We all need as much rest as we can get.” Hunk nodded and he headed out. Allura had already disappeared off the bridge. Coran was fixing something a few levels away and Shiro turned to leave the bridge but Pidge’s voice pulled him back. 

“What do you think she meant?” Shiro raised an eyebrow at her Pidge ran a hand over her face, pushing her glasses up into her hair. “When Coran gave her Ulaz’s knife she said something. Knowledge or death. It sounded like… like a mantra or an oath or something. Something she’s said a thousand times. Do… do you think that’s how she was raised?” Shiro stared at Pidge for a moment before sitting down next to the youngest Paladin. 

“I don’t know Pidge. She’s been in this war a lot longer than we have. From some of the things she’s said it might be all she’s ever known. I… I don’t know that she’s ever lost anyone as close to her as Ulaz was before, aside from her mother but she was too young to remember that. She says her mother disappeared when she was a child. But I’d say it’s likely that yes she’s been raised knowing how to die. What she meant by what she said well I don’t know.” Pidge nodded slightly scrubbing her hands over her face for a moment before nodding and standing. 

“I’m gonna get some sleep.” Shiro patted her on the shoulder and nodded. 

“Good idea Pidge.” With that the Green Paladin headed off to change out of her armor. Shiro sighed and stared down at his Galra hand. It wasn’t lost on him that the right arm of Voltron was Galra just like his right arm was. He sighed. Freeing the universe from Zarkon was going to be a very very complicated affair.


	24. Snap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathy has a certain pet peeve. More trouble is on the horizon.

If one were to ask Kathy what she thought was the lowest level any sentient being could sink to she would without fail reply, betrayal. She’d lived her entire life in an organization that relied on its members being able to count on each other. She wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept of betrayal. More than once she’d been denounced a traitor by Zarkon’s forces who hadn’t lived to say anything else. Blind loyalty had helped the Marmora infiltrate and sabotage Zarkon’s plans more than once. But it was a dangerous and often deadly thing. 

So when Lubos summoned the Galra forces with the push of a button and dithered about how he hadn’t had a choice, how they’d never stood a chance against the Galra, about how he was doing this to protect his people, something in her snapped and she growled. The Olkari next to Lubos must have heard her because for a moment his eyes met hers, or they would have if it weren’t for the blackened setting she had on her helmet. But despite that they seemed to understand each other perfectly. The Olkari kicked Lubos and Kathy stepped forwards, snatching one of the kings arms and easily twisting it up his back, pulling her Bayard with the other hand. It formed in a millisecond the tip of the blade pressed against the traitorous kings throat. Everyone around her seemed to freeze for a moment, save the still cuffed Olkari. Then the general across the room laughed. 

“One more move and I slit his throat.” Lubos was babbling, terrified, questioning why his fellow Olkari had thrown him to the lions. Kathy wasn’t paying him any more attention than it took to keep hold of him which wasn’t much. She knew the Olkari’s reasons. At least enough to know that he wouldn’t turn on Voltron. She was focused on the general across the room. The Olkari was still between them and him. 

“Go ahead and kill him, his work is done anyway.” Lubos stammered at the general’s words. Kathy knew what was coming next. She tossed Lubos at Shiro, he seemed most likely to catch the large Olkari, and leapt as the general raised his hand and ordered his men to open fire. She landed in front of the lone Olkari, her shield up between them and the Galra forces. He blinked as several lasers blasted into the shield, absorbed without effort by the Altean tech. He hadn’t expected to be saved. Well saved was sort of relative at the moment, as she now couldn’t freely fight without leaving the innocent Olkari to die. 

It turned out to not be a problem anyway as the head of the green lion shoved its way into the room making a sizable hole for them to escape through. Kathy grabbed the Olkari and kept him behind her shield as she leapt through the hole onto the head of the green lion with the others. The lion carefully flew away as Kathy carried the Olkari into the lion. She set him down and carefully cut his cuffs with her Bayard. He nodded and smiled in thanks. She nodded back and turned to the other paladins. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

The fight with the giant echo cube was harrowing. At one point all of them were convinced that Pidge was dead. So when she showed back up and single handedly took down the cubes everyone was cheering. Their extraordinary relief was short lived as one of the Galra ships tried to leave. Pidge and Kathy were faster though. They crippled the ship, forcing a landing. The Olkari scientists inside did the rest seeming to have turned the defenses against the remaining Galra inside. 

Their celebrations weren’t long lived like they had been on the Balmera. The Olkari were still reeling slightly from their king’s betrayal. But they accepted the beacon readily, agreeing to be there when the time came no matter what. As they loaded into the lions Kathy spotted Pidge glancing thoughtfully her way. She stepped into Red, not really thinking about it too hard. Or at least trying not to.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“So Ryner was right. All of us are made of the same cosmic dust.” Pidge grinned at Kathy who smiled back as Allura tapped her fingers on her console thoughtfully.

Their moment of silent reflection was shattered though as a terrifyingly familiar ship dropped out of hyper speed practically on top of them. The Paladins all dove for their stations as Allura gasped. 

“Zarkon!”


End file.
